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From: Stephen Edwards (edwards_at_cs.vt.edu)
Date: Tue Mar 29 2005 - 11:09:42 EST 

Message-ID: <42497DC6.7030405@cs.vt.edu>
Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2005 11:09:42 -0500
From: Stephen Edwards <edwards_at_cs.vt.edu>
Subject: Re: Web-CAT hosting


> Our IT organization had some questions:
> 1. You're working with Perl under Win2K. Did you write anything that used
 > the Win32 Perl libraries, or was it platform independent code?

Good question. It is mostly platform-independent, but we did use the following:

+ Win32::Job to get fork-style behavior with a time limit. It should

     be possible to replace this with a unix-style version.

+ XML::Smart, which may rely on a binary lib for xml parsing

     (I'm not positive). This mod is available in cpan.

> 2. What versions would we need for the JDK, Tomcat, and MySQL?

For Tomcat, about any version will do (we're using the latest v5 binary distro we could get). For MySQL, about any recent version will do (we are running 4.0.22, I think).

As for the JDK, there are two separate issues: (1) which JDK is used to run the Web-CAT server, and (2) which JDK is used to compile/run student programs. They don't have to be the same.

For (1), the Web-CAT server itself will run fine under any 1.4.x or later JDK, including 1.5.

For (2), we are currently using 1.4.2 for compiling/running student programs. That is because we weren't ready to make the switch to 1.5 last fall. As for moving to 1.5 for student code this fall, the real issue is whether or not Clover, Checkstyle, and PMD will support 1.5. It is no problem for the grading scripts and the server to handle 1.5 code, but the question is whether or not these other analysis tools will work on 1.5 code. We'd have to check into that.

Theoretically, as long as these analysis tools all support the required JDK versions, the student grading language can be which ever version you want, completely independent of the server's deployment language. Further, with multiple JDK's installed, it is possible to use different JDKs for different student assignments (or different -source params for different assignments).

Also, we'll need to get you a license for Clover. I had written the Clover folks a long time ago and they were willing to give free educational-use licenses for other Web-CAT adopters, but we'll have to re-initiate contact and get one. That would also be a good time for me to ask about 1.5 compatibility, I guess :-).

So, in addition to the JDK, you'll also need to install the most recent versions of:

+ ANT (http://ant.apache.org/)
+ Checkstyle 3.5 (let's stay away from the beta release)

     (http://checkstyle.sourceforge.net/) + PMD (http://pmd.sourceforge.net/)

I suggest unpacking both Checkstyle and PMD within the ${ANT_HOME} directory, as ${ANT_HOME}/checkstyle and ${ANT_HOME}/pmd, respectively. Eventually, you'll put clover at ${ANT_HOME}/clover as well.

> What kind of time do you have for attempting an off-site deployment?

My time will be limited until mid-May, but I'm sure I can squeeze in a bit of time each week to help out between now and then.

> Is e-mail the best venue for questions? Or would you prefer something
 > on the Web-CAT Wiki?

Normally, e-mail is best, but I'd really like to archive our exchanges in a more accessible place, since we do not yet have an installation manual. Maybe we can correspond by e-mail and I can copy/paste the messages onto the wiki in some sort of organization so that others can read them, and so we'll have a historical record laying around after the fact. Is that OK with you?

-- 

Stephen Edwards            604 McBryde Hall          Dept. of Computer Science
e-mail      : edwards_at_cs.vt.edu           U.S. mail: Virginia Tech (VPI&SU)
office phone: (540)-231-5723                         Blacksburg, VA  24061
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