README

Redacted Coding Assignment Solution for Problem Two: Conference Track Management

Author: REDACTED

What is this repository for?

This solution packs conference talk proposals into scheduled talks. See the info.txt file for a full description of the problem.

How do I get set up?

Build

This application uses Apache Maven. With Maven installed, to build it issue this command on the command line in the directory that contains this file.

mvn compile

Configuration

This application adopts one of the factors of The Twelve-Factor App in that it stores configuration in the environment. It relies on these environment variables being defined.

START - start time for each new track (HH:MM)
MINEND - earliest end time for each new track (HH:MM)
MAXEND - latest end time for each new track (HH:MM)
LUNCHSTART - lunch start time for each new track (HH:MM)
LUNCHEND - lunch end time for each new track (HH:MM)
CAPSTONE - name of a capstone event at the end of each track

Usage

To run the application on the provided test input in the file test.txt, issue this command from the command line in the directory containing this file.

java -cp target/classes/ com.redacted.ctm.CTMJava test.txt

The calculated schedule will be printed to standard output. Naturally, a different input file can be substituted for test.txt in this example. Moreover, multiple input files can also be listed on the command line. In that case, each input file is treated separately from the others, i.e., each input file corresponds to a schedule. Multiple input files produce multiple schedules. Finally, if no input file is provided, if one or more the environment variable configuration parameters are not provided, or if they are invalid, then the application prints a usage message to the screen.

Usage:
  java -cp <classpath> com.redacted.ctm.CTMJava <input file>...
Environment Variables:
  START - start time for each new track (HH:MM)
  MINEND - earliest end time for each new track (HH:MM)
  MAXEND - latest end time for each new track (HH:MM)
  LUNCHSTART - lunch start time for each new track (HH:MM)
  LUNCHEND - lunch end time for each new track (HH:MM)
  CAPSTONE - name of a capstone event at the end of each track

How to run tests

To run the JUnit tests run this command from the command line in the directory containing this file.

mvn test

Additional Notes

The instructions said to "name your code with the problem and language used." I decided to interpret that to mean that the main application name (in this case, a Java class with a main method should somehow reflect the problem name, and that it should include the word "Java." I abbreviated the problem name, which is "Conference Track Management," to "CTM" and appended "Java" to obtain CTMJava.
I tipped my hat to testing but didn't go "all-in." There is one test class which does some light unit testing of perhaps the most important class, the Bin class. That points out the direction for writing more tests, but in the interest of time I quit the effort early.
Likewise I tipped my hat to Javadoc comments but didn't go "all-in." Mostly, they're descriptive guideposts to code readers and future developers. They make haphazard use of the JavaDoc syntax. Again, in the interest of time I elected not to polish them further. That can be an exercise for later.
With Java 9 one can play with the code in an interactive environment with JShell.
```
  jshell --class-path target/classes
  jshell> /open scratch.java
```

dventimiglia / CTM