NAME

Games::Golf - Utilities to handle Perl Golf courses

SYNOPSIS

use Games::Golf;
my $golf = new Games::Golf( "tpr.glf" ); 

$golf->read( "entries.dat" );

$golf->test;

$golf->dump( "entries.dat" );

DESCRIPTION

The game of Perl golf is becoming increasingly popular. Holes frequently appear on Perl Monks, the Perl Review has an ongoing Perl Golf column and a monthly tournament, the Fun with Perl mailing-list has run several very successful courses in the last few months, with great success. So much success, in fact, that the golf@perl.org mailing-list has been resurrected.

Until now, judges have had to write extensive test programs to check and score the players' entries along with compiling the leaderboard by hand. On the other hand, golfers have to check their entries, and submit their entries themselves.

This module aims at facilitating the administration of Perl golf courses by writing a simple configuration file for the referees, and providing scripts for both the referee and the player side.

The included golfer script will test a player's individual entries (doing all the hard scoring and testing), as well as submitting the entries.

The Games::Golf object will handle a list of Games::Golf::Entry objects, as well as a list of Games::Golf::TestSuite.pm objects.

CONSTRUCTOR

new( $file )

Creates a new Games::Golf object. You are to provide the name of a configuration file that will describe the course (see "CONFIG FILE" for details about this file).

ACCESSORS

hole_names( )

Return the names of the holes of the course.

The following accessors are autoloaded.

file( )

The configuration file of the course.

PUBLIC METHODS

FIXME_extract( "/path/to/mbox", ... )

Extracts solutions from a unix-style mbox. A cache mechanism allows the Games::Golf object not to extract already extracted entries.

add( $entry )

Store an entry in the Games::Golf object. The paramater is a Games::Golf::Entry object.

Return the entry (either the new one, or the old one if the same entry was already in the cache).

test( [ @holes ] )

Tests the entries stored in the object. A cache mechanism (implemented in Games::Golf::TestSuite::run()) allows the Games::Golf object not to re-check already tested entries.

You can pass a list of holes to test, and the object will test the solutions of these holes only.

If no hole is given, then all holes are tested.

dump( $path )

Dump all entries in a single file.

load( $path )

Read a file with all previously recorded entries. See the dump method. This initiates the cache mechanism.

PRIVATE METHODS

_parse_config_file( )

Parse the config file, and fetch all attributes of the course. Create the testers for each of the holes.

CONFIG FILE

Once the course is launched, the referees are to provide a file which will describe the course.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

PERL_GOLF_NICK

Specifies the name to be printed on the leaderboard instead of the mail adress of the golfer.

PERL_GOLF_CATEGORY

This one can be set to indicate whether golfer is experienced (default, "veteran") or a newcomer ("beginner").

FILES

tests/*.t

The test suite for a golf course.

!!FIXME!! "tests/*" or "t/*"? t/* will already be taken by the module...

extracted/*

The directory where to store extracted entries.

!!FIXME!! Should we allow an environment variable to overwrite this?

DEPENDENCIES

• Date::Manip to handle dates the smart way.

• Data::Dumper to easily dump and fetch our entries.

• MD5 to implement our cache mechanism.

TODO

Lots of stuff.

BUGS

Please report all bugs to:

http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=Games-Golf

AUTHORS

Philippe 'BooK' Bruhat <book@cpan.org>

Dave Hoover <dave@redsquirreldesign.com>

Steffen Müller <games-golf@steffen-mueller.net>

Jonathan E. Paton <jonathanpaton@yahoo.com>

Jérôme Quelin <jquelin@cpan.org>

Eugène Van der Pijll <E.C.vanderPijll@phys.uu.nl>

COPYRIGHT

This module is free software. It may be used, redistributed and/or modified under the same terms as Perl itself.

SEE ALSO

perl, Games::Golf::Entry.

cpanm Games::Golf

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Games::Golf