Runner program¶

The core activity when preparing test cases with tcframe is writing runner programs. A runner program, along with a reference solution program, completely define the test cases of a single problem. A runner program is compilable into a single executable, which generates the test cases when run.

To write a runner program, create a C++ source file, and include the following header:

#include <tcframe/runner.hpp>

Every component of tcframe falls under tcframe namespace, so you might want to import it for convenience:

using namespace tcframe;

Components of a runner program¶

Each runner program consists of the following components.

Problem specification: Where you specify the problem’s time/memory limits, I/O variables, I/O formats, constraints, etc. It is a very formal specification of what are stated in the problem description.
Generator specification: Where you define the sample and official test cases, which solution to use, where to store the generated test cases, etc. It is tied to a particular problem specification: each test case must conform to the problem constraints, etc.

Writing main() function¶

To be able to be compiled into an executable, a runner program must have a main() function. Currently, there is only one way to write the main() function, as follows.

int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
    Runner<Problem> runner(argc, argv);

    runner.setGenerator(new Generator());
    return runner.run();
}

In most cases, you would want to just copy and paste the above snippet as your main() function.

Compiling runner program¶

You must have g++ at least version 4.7 to compile a runner program. It must be compiled with the following additional options:

-I <tcframe-location>/include, where tcframe-location is where you downloaded and extracted tcframe.
-std=c++11, since tcframe relies on C++11 features.

For example:

g++ -I ~/tcframe/include -std=c++11 -o runner runner.cpp

Running runner program¶

A runner program is an ordinary executable program. It can be run by executing it:

./runner

The above execution will produce the actual test case files.

Notes¶

A runner consists of only problem and generator specifications. We are planning to support other components, for example, checker and inline solution specifications.
A problem specification and the corresponding generator specification must be in the same file. We might support separating the specifications into two files.