IAUM CCC 3

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Programming Environment in CCC3

I know that many of you are wondering what the available languages/compilers/IDEs (operating systems, etc.) are for this CCC. Well, wonder no more!

The operating system will be Microsoft Windows XP (possibly with Service Packs). The machines will be normal standard PCs (what else will Windows run on? It's not like it's cross-platform or portable or opensource.) On top of that, Emacs (21.3) will be available too, for those who cannot work with Windows and need a more powerful piece of software!

In the on-site rounds, the available languages/compiler/IDEs are :
  1. C++/Microsoft C++ Compiler 13.10/Microsoft Visual Studio 2003 (MSVC 7.1) : This is better than the monstrosity of VS 2005, and the compiler is much more standard-compliant than 7.0 and 6.0.
  2. C++/GCC 3.4 (MinGW)/None or GCC 4.1 (DJGPP)/RHIDE : We will definitely have GCC, but whether it is the MinGW system or the DJGPP one, you can help us decide. Please comment on each of these options (and others,) otherwise, we'll decide on one and let you know later.
  3. Java/Sun JDK 1.5.0-04/Java Studio Enterprise 8 : OK, I admit. I don't use Java on a daily basis (who am I kidding? Not even on a monthly basis!) If you have any suggestions about a better Java IDE, and you actually have a reason for it (aside from "I like it better!") please leave a comment here and let us know.
  4. C#/Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 with CSC 7.10/Microsoft Visual Studio 2003 : Is there anybody out there who uses Mono on Windows? Why? (I admire you for that!)
  5. Object Pascal/Borland Delphi Compiler/Borland Delphi 7 : What can I say? Some people need this.
Now, you can ask for other configurations, you can ask for other IDEs, etc. Here's what you can't ask for:
  • Other operating systems. It's just too much work for us. And let's face it, it's not going to matter in the course of the tournament (unless of course, the stupid XP theme thing is used, which may cause temporary or permanent blindness! Or the XP start menu, which kills 10000 brain-cells every time opened! Believe you me, that's scientific fact!)
  • Other languages. You cannot ask for Visual Basic, because I hate it. You cannot ask for perl, python or lisp, because they're way too powerful. Gives an unfair advantage! Languages other than these are -- well, I can't say useless -- but a little obscure. We don't feel comfortable having languages we don't know well.
If you've read so far, please leave a comment, stating your prefered language, and other comments you may have.

Thanks!

posted by yzt at 6:40 AM

6 Comments:

  • Hey Guys!

    I don't see why you might care which compiler we use while you only get to see our source code?

    Thanks guys.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:22 AM  

  • C#? for a programming contest like acm?
    Do you know that they want to eliminate the pascal from official languages list in World Final?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:31 AM  

  • To "anonymous" above, wondering why we care what compiler he/she uses.
    First, you might want to know that in the second and third round, you'll be using the computers we provide for you in our university. And the list above is the compilers that are going to be available then.
    In the online round, we actually don't care what compilers you use, but you should care what compilers we are going to compile your code on, to avoid compile errors or--even worse--nasty runtime bugs.
    If you still don't get it, try compiling "for (int i = 0; i < N; ++i) mx >?= a[i];" on any C++ compiler but GCC. (Boys and girls, don't try this at home! It's deprecated even in GCC.)
    It is true that any C++ compiler worth its salt (MSVC 7.1 is one) can compile well-written C++ code using only the standard library into a binary that is functionally the same to other good compilers, and as such, you can write and test your code on any C++ compiler at your disposal. We are stating what compiler we are going to use as an aid to you.
    Users of other languages do not often encounters such issues because for other languages (Java, C#, Object Pascal) there is a single most-widely used compiler (Sun JDK, MS .NET Framework, Borland Delphi.) These problems however, may still rise in regards to the platform used, but as long as you stick with the standard libraries provided with the compilers, you're fine.

    To "moha above, asking about C# and Pascal.
    Why not C#? Now that the language has an open implementation (the Mono project) it is no longer pure evil! (Doesn't matter that we are using the non-open implementation! Heed what I say, not what I do!) Why are you surprised?
    Now Pascal is a whole different matter. While I can't know for sure why the ACM/ICPC people are ditching Pascal, I can say this: I totally agree with them. Pascal (as I know it) is not scalable and is mostly suitable for beginners, if even them. Maybe because Delphi usage is dropping in the world in favor of Visual Basic *shudder*. Maybe they just hate Nicolas Wirth? Who can tell?

    By Blogger yzt, at 11:35 AM  

  • I just wanted to ask for gvim/vim as the editor. I'm usually working with gvim as editor, and g++ as compiler. (Just give us time to configure vim ;) )

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:39 PM  

  • I'm a vi user myself, but I don't think that there is much request for it, and let's face it, having to move your ".exrc" file around with you is not too appealing.

    By the way, what makes you think that you'll reach the second round? ;-)

    By Blogger yzt, at 8:38 PM  

  • I was just reading my own comments, and noticed that I've mistyped Wirth's first name. It's "Niklaus Wirth", not what I wrote a few posts back.

    By Blogger yzt, at 7:09 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home