Moodle VPL Tutorials

--D. Thiebaut (talk) 11:51, 19 September 2014 (EDT)

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The tutorials below are intended for instructors teaching programming languages, and interested in setting up Moodle VPL modules to automatically test student programs.
The modules are listed in chronological order, most recent at the end. Because VPL is a complex system to master, the early tutorials may not be built using the best approach, but provide functionality. The later modules use more sophisticated features of VPL.
Feel freel to send me your own modules or discoveries, at dthiebaut@smith.edu, and I will be happy to include them here.

Moodle Virtual-Programming-Lab (VPL)

Tutorial	Language	Description
Moodle/VPL Server Setup		This tutorial provides rough directions for setting up two virtual servers that will host Moodle on one of them, and the VPL jail server on the other. This setup is used by the tutorials below on the use of VPL to test student programs.
Moodle VPL Example 1: Hello World!	Python	This tutorial illustrates how to setup VPL to test a simple Python 3 program that prints the string "Hello World!" to the console.
Moodle VPL Example 2: Min of 3 Numbers	Python	This tutorial illustrates how to setup VPL to test a simple Python 3 program that receives 3 numbers from the console and prints the smallest of the 3. The program is tested 3 times, with 3 different sets of input numbers.
Moodle VPL Example 3: Rock-Paper-Scissors	Python	This tutorial shows the settings for a VPL activity that would test a Python program that plays the game of Rock-Paper-Scissors. The program tested is expected to get its input as pairs of letters (PP, RS, PS, etc), indicates the winner of each round, and stops when one player is 3 points above the other.
Moodle VPL Example 4: Gremlins in my File!	Python	This tutorial illustrates how to setup a VPL activity that tests a student program that reads a text file, modifies it, and stores the new content back in the original file. This requires an additional python program that sets up the environment for the first one to run, provides it the information it needs, and captures its output.
Moodle VPL Example 5: Print a 2D chessboard	Python	This tutorial illustrates how to setup a VPL activity that tests a student program that asks the user for an integer and then prints a 2D chessboard (alternating black & white cells) with that dimension. The size of a cell is a 3x3 character on the screen.
Moodle VPL Example 6: Display a rectangle of stars	Assembly Nasm	This tutorial illustrates the setup of a VPL activity to test an assembly language program that displays a fixed string (rectangle of stars).
Moodle VPL Example 7: Assign a grade inversely proportional to the size of the executable	Assembly Nasm	This tutorial illustrates how to setup a VPL activity that will test the size of the executable version of an assembly language program. This can easily be adapted to other languages.
Moodle VPL Example 8: A Hello World Program in Java	Java	This tutorial illustrates how to setup a VPL activity to test a simple Hello World program in Java.
Moodle VPL Example 9: A Multi-File Java Program with A Data File	Java	This tutorial illustrates the setting of a VPL activity that evaluates a 2-class Java project that gets its input from a data file. The project is tested with 4 different data files; one provided by the students, 3 provided by the instructor.
Moodle VPL Example 10: Evaluation Using A Custom Python Program	Python	This tutorial illustrates how to evaluate student work using a custom Python program. Such evaluation allows for more complex testing than enabled by the VPL .cases file.
Moodle VPL Example 11: Testing a Java Class Using another Class as Tester.	Java	This tutorial sets up an environment to test different methods of a Java class provided by the students, and uses a derived class provided by the instructor to activate the student classes.
Moodle VPL Example 12: Using a Java Tester for testing Student Java Program.	Java	This tutorial shows how to setup a more sophisticated testing environment for evaluating and grading Java program.
Moodle VPL Example 13: Testing 2 classes, one Holding a Data Structure, the Other Holding a Test Class.	Java	This VPL module tests two Java classes, one inherited from the other. The test checks that one class does not access directly a member array of the super class (look for presence of [ ] brackets in code). Different grades are given depending on various stages of success.
Moodle VPL Example 14: Testing Student List Class and Verifying Functionality.	Java	This VPL module tests a data structure provided by the student using a class provided by the instructor. The instructor class tests various methods. The grade is proportional to the number of correct output lines.
Moodle VPL Example 15: Looping through Tests in vpl_evaluate.sh. Testing Exceptions.	Java	This VPL module tests how a program uses exceptions to parse a simple text file containing numbers. The vpl_evaluate.sh script generates 3 tests, and runs through all 3 of them. Vpl_evaluate.sh skips non digits and non minus characters when comparing the output of the submitted program to the expected output.
Moodle VPL Example 16: Catching Programs Stuck in Infinite Loops.	Java	This VPL module is an extension of the previous module (#15), and catches java programs that hang in infinite loops.
Tips & Tricks		A collection of notes, recommendations, tips, tricks, and modifications. For example, we describe how to strip comments from java or assembly language comments.