acmx

ACMX

acmX is tool that empower contestants to solve competitive programming problems easily.

Features

• Contest/Problem parsing. (Through Competitive-Companion extension).
• Running solution against testcases automatically.
• Add custom testcases easily.
• Verdict reporting (OK, WA, RTE, TLE, CE).
• Smart generator creation. Testcases generator is created using tcgen program synthesis tool by inspecting testcases.
• Stressing solution against brute using a generator (Useful to find corner cases).

Join the conversation

We have a group to discuss about this tool in Telegram. Join here.

How am I supposed to use acmX

acmX have been designed to run automatically boilerplate actions I repeat often in competitive programming. Next is the expected pipeline to interact with it. It is important that you setup some configurations before start using the tool.

• Open Visual Studio Code

• Open online contest/problem you want to solve and click on competitive-companion extension button. All problems along with the testcases are downloaded and you are ready to code.

• Start coding awesome solution inside file sol.cpp.

• After you finish call Run and automatically your program will be compiled and run against every testcases. If the solutions is right, it will be reported as Ok otherwise you will see failing testcase in a cool layout. You can always go back to original layout calling View: Code.

• Add more testcases than provided in statement using Add Test Case, or modify and see existing testcases by calling Open Test Case.

• If your solution keep failing you can stress it using a generator and a brute solution. Call Upgrade to create both generator (gen.py) and correct (brute.cpp) programs. Right now generator must be written in python. After both codes are ready call Stress and your original code will be tested on random test cases from generator against correct solution.

The environment structure is the following:

    round-525/
        A/
            sol.cpp
            brute.cpp
            gen.py
            attic/...
            testcases/
                1.in
                1.out
                1.real
                ...
        B/...
        C/...
        D/...
        E/...

Certainly acmX can be (and hopefully will be) extended so that it fits everyone pipeline. If acmX almost fit yours, feel free to improve it and make a PR! I'll be happy to hear from you and give you support. If you find any issue report it at github issue tracker.

Getting started

You need to tell acmX which folder are you going to use to save all the problems and contests. To do that:

• Open settings (from command palette) or Ctrl+,
• Go to acmx.configuration.solutionPath
• Set this value to the path you are going to use for storing contests and problems. (e.g. /path/to/my/solutions)

Parsing problems and contests is done via Competitive-Companion extension. To use it with acmX:

• Install the extension for your browser:
  • Chrome
  • Firefox
• Change the port used by the extension to 10042. This is the port used by default in acmX. If you want to use any other port, open settings and update acmx.companion.port. This require restart vscode to take effect. You should also change the port on the extension.

I encourage everyone to read and change all settings before first use. Anyway, after updating acmx.configuration.solutionPath it should work good for C++ users.

How does stressing the solution work

To stress the solution your code is compared to a correct code against a large sample of testcases. In order to do that you should execute ACMX: Upgrade from the command palette. Two files will be created.

• brute.cpp This should be a correct solution. A code that is expected to report correct output. It doesn't matter if it's slow as long as you only check this program against small testcases.
• gen.py Every time this code is executed is expected to print a random testcases.

AWESOME gen.py is created automatically by inspecting testcases if you install tcgen. To install tcgen just run:

pip install tcgen

Default template is awful, how can I change it

Create a file with your template. In settings, set acmx.configuration.templatePath to the path to your template.

I code in java, can I use this tool

Yes, of course, and any other language you want. Just make sure to update your language configuration setting.

This problem has multiple correct answers, what can I do

Set checker properly for this problem via ACMX: Set Checker. Checkers can use testlib.h which is recommended.

Commands

Call this commands from the command palette (Ctrl + Shift + P).

• acmx.addProblem (ACMX: New Problem): Create a new problem. Make environment skeleton and download testcases.
• acmx.addContest (ACMX: New Contest): Create a new contest. Make environment skeleton and download testcases.
• acmx.runSolution (ACMX: Run): Compile and run current solution against testcases.
• acmx.openTestcase (ACMX: Open Test Case): Open a particular testcase.
• acmx.addTestcase (ACMX: Add Test Case): Add a new testcase.
• acmx.coding (ACMX: View: Code): Return to 1 column layout (better to code).
• acmx.stress (ACMX: Stress): Run the solution against correct program using testcases from generator. Useful to find failing and corner cases. Must call upgrade first.
• acmx.setChecker (ACMX: Set Checker): Create checker file. Allow to select a checker among a pool of custom checkers.
• acmx.upgrade (ACMX: Upgrade): Create additional files before calling Stress.
• acmx.compile (ACMX: Compile): Compile sol.cpp.

Settings

• acmx.configuration.templatePath: Path to template file. Leave empty to use default template.
• acmx.configuration.solutionPath: Path to folder where contest will be created and stored. To set active workspace use .
• acmx.configuration.extension: Extension of the programming language you will use to code solutions. Default cpp for c++
• acmx.run.timeLimit: Maximum time limit in seconds to run the program on each test case.
• acmx.execution.compile: Command to compile C++ programs. Refer to the code as $PROGRAM, and output file as $OUTPUT.
• acmx.execution.pythonPath: Path to python executable. This will be used to run generator.
• acmx.stress.times: Number of times to run solution on random generated test cases against brute solution.