Games-Tournament-Swiss

This is version 0.03 of Games::Tournament::Swiss. This is ALPHA-level software. It may not run. It will be slow. Although it attempts to implement the FIDE Swiss Rules, it may not pair players correctly. It may take over your computer, and force you to reboot. It may DESTROY your computer. Use at your own risk. If it does work, I reserve the right to change functionality and interfaces.

It is also run from a shell. You need to work from a command line and type commands. It also depends on perl to run. If you don't know anything about perl, you will have to learn something about installing it and running scripts, before you can use this software.

For perl on Windows, try the free download of ActiveState's distribution at http://www.activestate.com/store/activeperl, or the experimental Strawberry Perl http://win32.perl.org/wiki/index.php?title=Strawberry_Perl

On other platforms, find it from your regular source for new packages.

INSTALLATION

This software doesn't install itself. To install this module, run the following commands:

    perl Build.PL		or		perl Makefile.PL
    ./Build					make
    ./Build test				make install
    ./Build install

make may be nmake or dmake on Windows.

The distribution is made up of modules and scripts. The modules provide functionality that you can use to write your own tournament software. The scripts are an example of a swiss pairing program.

SCRIPTS

The scripts in script_files/ need to be installed somewhere so that they can be run in the directory in which pairing of each round is done.

DIRECTORY LAYOUT

The scripts assume that there is a directory in which a configuration file, called league.yaml, with data about the players exists. The rounds are paired in subdirectories, named 1,2,3,.. below this directory. Files named:

brackets.yaml  pairing.yaml  round.yaml
matches.yaml   player.yaml   tourney.yaml

are left in these subdirectories after pairing. Don't delete these, as they are what allows data to be carried over from round to round.

Scores are in another subdirectory called scores. They are of the form 1.yaml, 2.yaml,.. You need to create these files yourself.

DATA FILES

Do not use tabs in these YAML files. The level of indentation is significant. Follow the examples closely. The first, league.yaml has lines of the form:

member:
  - id: 1
    name: Laver, Rod
    rating: 2810
  - id: 2
    name: Sampras, Pete
    rating: 2800
  - id: 3
    name: McEnroe, John
    rating: 2780

If you are using your own scoring scheme, and colors (called, roles), see the example below. You can add your own data to the member records. A pairing number is generated for the players, so don't add a pairing number.

The score files: 1.yaml, etc, are of the form:

1: 1
2: 1
3: 0.5

The first number is the pairing number of the player, which you can find in league.yaml after running 'pair' the first time. The second is the score.

A sample scoring scheme and roles in league.yaml could be:

scores:
  win: 1
  loss: 0
  draw: 0.5
  absent: 0
  bye: 1
roles:
  - White
  - Black

GENERATING PAIRINGS

Starting with an empty main directory, create league.yaml, and an empty subdirectory for the first round. Run the script, 'pair' in the empty round subdirectory. A log of the pairing is printed and 'round.yaml' in the directory contains the matches. After the games in the round are complete, in the scores subdirectory, enter the scores for the players in the file, '1.yaml', or whatever the round is. Then you can run 'crosstable' or 'pairingtable' in the original directory above the subdirectory, to get current standings. If there is a next round, make another empty subdirectory, named after it and continue as before.

SUPPORT AND DOCUMENTATION

After installing, you can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command.

    perldoc Games::Tournament::Swiss

You can also look for information at:

    Search CPAN, for documentation and source:
        http://search.cpan.org/dist/Games-Tournament-Swiss

    CPAN Request Tracker (Report Bugs here):
        http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=Games-Tournament-Swiss

    AnnoCPAN, annotated CPAN documentation:
        http://annocpan.org/dist/Games-Tournament-Swiss

    CPAN Ratings:
        http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/Games-Tournament-Swiss

COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE

Copyright (C) 2006 Dr Bean

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the same terms as Perl itself.