PyCFramework is a framework for managing programming competitions writter in Python. Originally, this project was simply a rigirous refactoring of its BASH counterpart PCFramework. However, it has evolved into a full-fledged application and is currently being used to manage the quarterly Beginner's Programming Competition hosted by Women in Computing at University of California, San Diego.

A lot of information about why this project is being developed can be seen in the documentation for PCFramework.

When creating a programming competition, several things need to be done on the technical level. PyCFramework attempts to automate these things to make things easier for the creaters of the competition.

1. Creating challeneges/questions.

   When questions are developed, it needs to be made sure that the questions are solvable, that they aren't too easy, and that they are interesting. The best way to do this is to have the people designing the competition solve the problems. In this way, not only is the difficulty of the questions verified, but template files for the contestants are also created and verified.

   Further, when the committee behind the competition writes their solutions, they need to verify that their solutions are correct. These solutions prove that the question is solvable.

2. Managing Cases

   PyCFramework handles test cases to test solutions against with its "cases" functionality. Test cases are created in JSON format and are then used as input to the user-written solutions. This input is compared to the output (also written in JSON format) to determine whether a solution is correct. These cases are the same cases that the contestants will use during the competition.

3. Testing Solutions

   PyCFramework's primary feature is the testing of solutions. This means running user-written solutions against provided cases in order to determine whether a solution is correct. This feature is not meant to be used during the competition (A platform such as HackerRank should probably be used), but is perfect for managing solutions written by the committee members.

4. Managing Solution Writers

   Of course, with a large committee full of many people writing solutions, there needs to be a way to manage the people writing the solutions. PyCFramework takes care of this by allowing the adding and removal of solution writers, as well as assigning certain problems to certain users.

5. Managing Allowed Languages

   The contestants are surely only allowed to use certain languages to develop their solutions. Thus, the committee members should only use these languages. PyCFramework supports the management of allowed programming languages through a JSON configuration file and enforces these languages when testing solutions.

PyCFramework can easily be installed by cloning this git repository. Nothing else to it!

The executable for this project is found in Solutions/dev/runner.py. This file should be the only file that is executed and should contain all the necessary functionality. The script is separated into three modes of functionality:

Manages all the writers in the competition. This module allows you to view,add,edit, or delete writers.

Manages the testing of solutions written for the competition.

Manages the packaging of cases for importation into a programming competition platform.

More information about these can be viewed inside their respective sources (found in Solutions/dev/util/subparsers) or in the wiki.

Many of PyCFramework's features make use of the user-provided configuration. This configuration is separated into three configuration files, all found within the conf/ folder. More information of configuration can be found in the wiki.

Contains information regarding how the competition in general is configured. This includes things like how to name the solution files, how many problems there are, how many solution writers must get a solution correct before it is accepted, etc.

Contains information about the allowed languages during the competition.

Contains information about how to package case files for uploading to a programming competition framework such as HackerRank.

Contains a list of variables that can be used in other configuration files. This file is not to be edited.