South Central USA Regional Programming Contest

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  Welcome to the contest. This page has been written in an attempt to make things easier for you.

Advice

  • Don't allow a question of unethical behavior to occur.
  • Read all of the rules. Make sure you understand them.
  • Don't miss the rules presentation.
  • Be courteous to everyone -- it might help.
  • Take advantage of both the practice time and the practice contest.
  • ALWAYS do a successful test run of your program with all known test data before submitting.
  • Ask before it's too late.
  • Print when you need to (like when you switch from one person to another).
  • Expect delays when printing (at least five minutes).

Clarifications

Remember that you can use clarifications to submit questions about both the contest and the problems. Understand the judges' perspective -- clarifications mean that the problem has a mistake, is incomplete, or is incorrect. PC^2 provides a complete clarification system. To use it, choose the problem and then type in the question.

Computer Use

You have write access to c:\temp. Do not try to delete files except in your own directories below C:\temp and do not try to write files anywhere else. Doing so will be perceived as trying to cheat.

We suggest you make a directory below c:\temp for each problem you plan to solve. We will create a directory called c:\temp\pc2home. Do not alter anything in this directory. We will also create a directory called c:\temp\execute. Do not put anything there either. Do not put anything in the c:\temp directory itself except for subdirectories.

Solution Design

Your programs should be written so that they read from standard in (<stdin>) and write to standard out (<stdout>). We will run your programs by using I/O redirection (with the < and > operators). Here is an example run of a compiled program:

p1.exe < input.txt > output.txt

Submitting Solutions

You will use PC^2 to submit your solutions for judging. To do a submission, you must tell PC^2 which problem you are attempting to solve, the programming language you are using, and then you must select the source code file. NOTE: All programs must be a single source file (no separate units). Refer to the PC^2 Instructions for more information. Be sure to practice this BEFORE the contest starts.

You will be notified via PC^2 when your submission is judged. You can also use PC^2 to check the current status of all submissions.

Test Runs

PLEASE do test runs. Test your solutions before submitting them to us. Your solutions should at least compile and process the sample input data provided in the problem sets. PC^2 has a Test button. This is in the same window as the Submit button. When you use Test you run the exact same script we do to judge with the following exceptions: we copy our own input file in, and we compare your output to the expected output. If your program compiles and runs on your system -- it will on the judge's system. Of course our data file may be more extensive than yours.

NOTE: When you Test, you must also send your input file along with your source file. Your input file MUST be named input.txt. Any other name or not sending an input file will cause the test to fail. YOU ONLY SEND input.txt WHEN YOU DO A Test - NOT when you do a Submit. This method insures that your program will compile, read from the input file, and write to the output file.

Resources

Your team of three students will have five hours (unless altered by unforseen events) to complete eight problems (anticipated). The only computational device you are to use is the assigned computer system. Books, notes, and printouts are welcome. If you have not already done so -- use the practice times to familiarize yourself with the computers, Windows 2000, the compilers and PC^2.

Last Words

Friday night is for practicing, understanding the rules, getting comfortable with the computing environment and relaxing. The Saturday morning practice is for verifying that the system you will use works, verifying that you can edit, compile, link, and submit solutions correctly.

Ask questions while you can. Once the contest starts Saturday it will be to late.

One final thing - Do NOT do anything that might be perceived as cheating.

Good luck!

 

LSU

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The statements and opinions included in these pages are those of South Central USA Regional Programming Contest Staff only. Any statements and opinions included in these pages are NOT those of Louisiana State University, LSU Computer Science, LSU Computing Services, or the LSU Board of Supervisors.
© 1999,2000,2001 Isaac W. Traxler

This page last updated 2001/12/03 17:54:21.