[Home]ClassroomRumblesUsingCVS

Robo Home | Changes | Preferences | AllPages

Showing revision 5
OK, the previous discussion in yahoogroups under the heading "Managing Classroom Rumbles" got me to this page. So now, how do I use CVS to manage a classroom rumble? Again, there are 10 student workstations and one instructor station with an LCD projector. -- Edwin

Welcome! Are you running Windows or Linux on those computers? -- PEZ

More importantly can you summarize here what you are trying to accomplish or provide a link to the discussion so we can have some background. This sounds like a very neat project. CVS is mostly a "code" repository where you would check your code "in". CVS would allow you to maintain revisions of your software so you can, at any time, bring up a past version of the code to see what it looked like. Setting up and working with CVS, while not overly hard, is a bit of a challenge if you have never used it before.

One alternate option (*jim blindly assume he knows your requirements*) would be to put a public share on the instructor's machine. The instructors machine would need to have Robocode, Roboleague, and Java installed on it. The student machines would need to have Robocode, Java, and optionally an IDE installed. Have the Students build and package their robots on the student machines and store the resultant jar on the public share. The instructor would then use Robocode to import the builds into Robocode. Using Roboleague, you could set up and run divisions and leagues with these robots. If you wanted to watch the matches as they took place, Roboleague has an option to view Robocode in it's menu bar. By default it is pretty small but you can drag the size out or choose a different size from the Robocode window that pops up.

Out of curiousity, where in the world are you at? I have asked around at some of the local schools (Washington, DC area) to see if anyone was doing this in computer class/club and no one seems to be doing so. -- jim

Edwin started this page on my request. They are already using something like a public share, but the import procedure is tedious. Someone suggested using CVS and I think that's a great idea. You can check anything in to a CVS repository, including binaries so I think the students can check in their robot jar files. Including source which will make the CVS repository help a little with version control as well. The setup would be something along these lines:

  1. A CVS server (possibly on the same machine as the current file server, or else on the instructor machine).
    1. Make a "cvs import" of the robots directory on the instructors machine.
  2. For each robot that's to be included in a rumble. From the students machines
    1. "cvs add robot_name.jar"
    2. "cvs commit -m 'my killer bot, now on steroids' robot_name.jar"
    3. Repeat the commit every time the jar is rebuilt
  3. When it's rumble time. From the instructor machine in the robots directory
    1. "cvs update"
    2. Start RoboLeague or, if it's already running, rechose the robot file repository from the menu.
I don't recall exactly the commands to set up the CVS repository and do the import. And I'm not sure how to do it on Windows, since I'm a Unix dude. But maybe someone else can make the above list more complete and help answering whatever questions Edwin might have? -- PEZ

I use Windows NT in labs at Portland State University (Portland, OR, USA) and Oregon Graduate Institute (Beaverton, OR, USA). The class description is at http://www.ogi.edu/satacad/classes-summer03/java-programming.htm

I also teach Game Maker, Logo and Lego Mindstorms programming classes. Edwin


Robo Home | Changes | Preferences | AllPages
Edit revision 5 of this page | View other revisions | View current revision
Edited August 13, 2003 5:16 EST by ABC (diff)
Search: