Notes to Judges

Read the Error Messages and Notes to Teams right now. ... Done? OK.

The judges' diskette contains one subdirectory for each problem, which includes the description in HTML, the source file, the input and output files, and an MS-DOS executable. It contains a subdirectory called NOTES that includes the HTML source for these notes. It also contains a subdirectory called JUDGE that includes some batch files and utilities that I have used in the past as a local head judge. If you do not already have a tried-and-true method for judging, you might want to take a look at them. Instructions are provided in Using the Judging Utilities, and are available in text form in the read.me file.

Regardless of what judging method you use, remember the following (the included utilities take care of these details for you):

As in last year's contest,

I think the easiest problem is Booklet Printing, and both Self Numbers and Do the Untwist are easy if you're not scared away by the description. The other three are more difficult, but it's hard to rank them. I don't think any of the problems are very hard. I expect strong teams to solve all six problems, and most teams to solve one or two.

I'd like to thank John Cigas from Rockhurst for Booklet Printing, Andy Harrington from Loyola for Don't Get Rooked and Finding Rectangles, and C.R. Van Dyke from Missouri Western for Word Amalgamation. These three also reviewed all the contest materials, so they deserve an extra round of applause. I wrote the other two problems.

If you have any questions or corrections, talk to your site coordinator to find out how to communicate with me via the contest Web site. If it's an emergency call me at 417–836–4944.