Several individuals have expressed an interest in contributing to Web-CAT's development, often because they were working (or planning to work) on their own grader and wanted to build on an existing system if they could. If that sounds like you, then I need your help! However, it isn't going to be too easy.

The following linked pages lay out the current situation so we can figure out an appropriate path forward to work together.

Extending Web-CAT's Grading Abilities

For the person who wishes to use Web-CAT in one or more courses without becoming a web application developer:

• You can TryOutWebCat, and if it looks appropriate for your course, you can volunteer to UseWebCatRemotely at your school from our server.

• The PluginGuide explains how you can extend or write entirely new grading plug-ins for your own assignments, without needing to know anything about Web-CAT's implementation or work on its source code.

• AddLanguages explains how easy it is to support new languages on Web-CAT (without any code changes).

Contributing to the Web-CAT Application Itself

For adventurers with more ambitious goals:

• Remember that you can AddGradingScripts or AddLanguages without having to change Web-CAT's source code and without having to learn all the corresponding internal gunk about how it is implemented.

• While creating an OpenSourceWebCatProject has posed some challenges, we are close to overcoming them all. As a result, our SourceForgeProject will be the center of collaborative development on Web-CAT.

• We are planning to work toward a ContinuousIntegrationServer to support communal development, although we are not there yet. We have an appropriate linux server available for this purpose, but do not yet have the manpower to set up all the continuous integration machinery.

Contributing to Our Eclipse Plug-ins

If you are interested in adding to our EclipsePlugins, think about joining our SourceForgeProject. We would be happy for additional development help.

Summary

OK, if you've read the links above, you now know that Web-CAT is a big hairy beast. No surprise. However, if you've read this far, then you probably have a pretty good idea of what kind of involvement you'd like to get into. First, if you just want to TryOutWebCat on my server to see how things work, then by all means let me know. I need to know what programming language you want to use for assignments, whether or not you've used any kind of automated grader before, what experience you have with XUnit-style frameworks for your language, and your time line. If too many people fall into this category, I may not be able to handle everyone at once, but I'll deal with that problem when (and if) it occurs.

Second, if you want to work on Web-CAT, either to build your own grading features on top of it or to contribute to its current capabilities, let me know what you think regarding a "traditional" sourceforge project vs. a local continuous integration server. I'd definitely like to hear about what you are interested in doing, and how we might make it work.

So, that's probably more info than you wanted. At least now you'll know the nasty details behind the scenes.