The installation and grading works exactly the same way as last year. To install the utilities in Windows:

1. Open a Command Prompt (usually under Start->All Programs->Accessories).
2. Change to a directory in which you have write access, under which you want the mcpc2004 directory and subdirectories copied.
3. Put the judges' CD-ROM into a CD/DVD drive. Then enter the command "e:\install", where "e:" should be replaced by the correct drive letter for your CD/DVD drive.

This will copy the subdirectory mcpc2004, and subdirectories mcpc2004\team, mcpc2004\judge, mcpc2004\back, mcpc2004\notes, and directories with each of the individual problems, and make the current directory mcpc2004\team.

All directories mentioned below are relative to the mcpc2004 directory.

To judge a program, make sure the current directory is still team, and then just type

j L #

where L is the problem letter and # is the team number, as in "j e 12" to grade problem e for team 12.

This batch file will

1. search the A: drive for a valid source file for problem L,
2. delete the relevant contents of team in preparation for judging,
3. copy the source file into team,
4. make a uniquely named archival copy of the source file in back,
5. copy the correct input file into team,
6. compile the program,
7. run the program,
8. compare the program's output with the correct output, and if they don't match,
9. allow you to visually compare the two output files.

In step 8 the files are compared using the diff utility. If the two files are identical it will say so, and otherwise it will show the differences. The output of diff is fairly clear when it all fits on one screen. If there are a lot of errors it may be easier to see them in step 9.

Step 9 is necessary if it is not obvious that there are wrong answers, and you need to check for a presentation error. The batch file uses the LIST program to view both the team's output and the correct output.  (For the future, if anyone can supply us with a freely available 32-bit variant, the chief judges would appreciate it.)

Using the list program:

• Use Ctrl-PgUp and Ctrl-PgDn to switch between the two files.
• The status line at the top of the screen tells you which file you're looking at: the team's output is in the current directory team (no path shown), and the correct output is in the directory ..\problem.
• If necessary you can use Alt-H to display the files in hexadecimal; this might help you find missing end-of-line characters or extraneous whitespace.
• Use the arrow keys to move around in the files if necessary, and
• Press ESC or F10 to exit.

• Press Alt-W followed by Return to get two views of the same file, then
• Press Ctrl-PgDn to display the second file in the bottom window.
• Use Ctrl-V to switch windows.

These batch files assume that java.exe and javac.exe are in the execution path and that there is a default installation of Visual Studio .Net 2003 on drive C:, to compile C++ and C files. If you are using Visual Studio .Net 2003 for C and C++, but put it somewhere else than the default location on C: drive, then you can edit the environment variable set in judge\vcpp.cmd. If you are using another compiler, you can modify vcpp.cmd or replace both the places it is called in judge\j2.cmd, so that C and C++ files are compiled and linked in your environment. Recall the restriction that all compilers must use the 32 or 64 bit flat memory model. They also must reproduce the default compilation parameters in the C/C++ IDE, if you provide one.

If you modified j2.bat and/or vcpp.bat last year, and they still work, you may use them again this year, except that they should be renamed to end with .cmd. If you are reading this before receiving your official packet, and you need to set up for this year, you can obtain last year's j2.bat and vcpp.bat from the judge's disk zip file at http://csc.smsu.edu/~mcpc/archives/mcpc2003.zip. If you modify the 2003 judge\j2.bat file and or judge\vcpp.bat, and it works, use it to replace the corresponding files on this year's disk, but again change the .bat extensions to .cmd.

Archive of submitted programs

Example: The 4th time that team 7 has a C++ program for problem E graded on the same computer, the batch file judge\nextback.cmd is called to copy their source program to back\7e4.cpp.

Browsing in your spare time

All the judges' files are copied by install.cmd. While waiting for the next problem to grade, you can browse through the problem files and administrative information files by starting a web browser at the local file browse.html in the mcpc2004 directory.