Downloads

• Dataset
• Executable JAR of the visualizer
• Source code of the visualizer

In order to use the offline tester / visualizer tool for testing your solution locally, you'll have to modify your solution by adding the main method that interacts with the tester / visualizer via reading data from standard input and writing data to standard output. As long as you do not change the implementation of method compose, this doesn't affect the way your solution works when being submitted to our server.

To simulate a single test case, your program should implement the following protocol (each integer / string is to be read from / printed in a separate line):

• Read integer len.
• Read integers data[0], data[1], ..., data[len-1].
• Call compose(data). Let ret be the return value.
• Print integers ret[0], ret[1], ..., ret[799]. Flush standard output stream.

In other words, you should implement the following pseudocode in the main method of your solution:

    len = parseInt(readLine())
    for (i=0; i < len; i++)
        data[i] = parseInt(readLine())

    ret = compose(data)

    for (i=0; i < 800; i++)
        printLine(ret[i])

    flush(stdout)

In order to run the tester / visualizer, you should use the following command:

java -jar CollageMakerVis.jar -exec "<command>"

<command> is the command you would use to execute your solution. If your compiled solution is an executable file, the command will just be the full path to it, for example, "C:\TopCoder\solution.exe" or "~/topcoder/solution". In case your compiled solution is to be run with the help of an interpreter, for example, if you program in Java, the command will be something like "java -cp C:\TopCoder Solution".

The dataset must be downloaded and extracted so that both "100px" and "300px" folders are located at the same path from which you run the visualizer.

Additionally you can use the following parameters (all are optional):

• -seed <seed>. Sets the seed used for test case generation. Default value is 1.
• -novis. Switches the visualization off, leaving only text output.
• -quit <quit time>. If this option is used, visualizer will wait for quit time milliseconds and then it will automatically quit. (The default behaviour when this option is not used would be to wait for you to close the visualizer window.)
• -target <path to 300px folder>. Location of the "300px" folder. This is useful if you want to rename and/or move the folder. For example, if the folder is moved to "E:\Work" and renamed into "TargetImages", then you will need to specify "-target E:\Work\TargetImages".
• -source <path to 100px folder>. Location of the "100px" folder.

You can print any debug information of your solution to the standard error stream and it will be forwarded to the standard output of the tester.

For more information on using visualizers, please check the following recipe draft from TopCoder Cookbook. Note that this is not a troubleshooting thread, please use the match forum for questions instead.