Read Me

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                      |JAGUARS|
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The quiz bowl reading, recognition, and scoring system
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            Copyright 2010 Gregory Gauthier
 Licensed under GNU GPLv3; see "COPYING" for details
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      https://sourceforge.net/projects/jaguars/
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FOREWORD

JAGUARS (Just a Gauthier User-friendly automated reading system) is
a program that I created to facilitate automatic reading of packets
without having to scroll back and forth manually in text documents.
It also keeps score, which saves on having a scorekeeper (individual
statistics are not yet supported, but they will be added soon).  With
USB buzzers, it will soon be possible to use the buzzers to lock out
other players from signalling, removing the expense of having a
separate buzzer system while streamlining the scoring process.  This
is my first PyQt project, so I know my code is probably sloppy.  I
hope to get better with future versions.

I hope you enjoy this program.

Gregory Gauthier, September 22, 2010
<gregory.j.gauthier@vanderbilt.edu>

USAGE

You will need Python v2.7 and PyQt v4.x.  Double click the main.py
file in the JAGUARS folder to begin the program.  Initially, no packet
is loaded into the program.  You don't need a packet to use JAGUARS;
the scorekeeping software automatically switches between toss-up and
bonus modes based on whether correct answers are given to toss-up
questions.  You can load a packet; if you do so, the corresponding
questions will appear in the main window, and when you finish that
question, the next question to be read (toss-up or bonus) will be
read automatically.  Packets must be in HTML format; you can create
an HTML file using OpenOffice.org Writer or Microsoft Word and
opting to save your packet as an HTML file.  *Opening a packet
resets the game score.*

RUNNING THE GAME

Currently, JAGUARS only runs games in ACF format.  ACF format runs on
packets of 20 toss-ups and up to 20 bonuses, with a bonus question
being awarded to the team correctly answering a toss-up question.
"Bounceback" bonuses are not supported.  Tiebreaker questions are
not supported.  Bonuses can award a team 0 to 30 points.  When a
player buzzes in, the "Correct," "Incorrect," and "Clear" buttons
activate.  Clicking "Correct" awards the team of the buzzing player
10 points and the next bonus that has not been read.  Clicking
"Incorrect" deducts 5 points from the team of the buzzing player
(this corresponds to an incorrect interrupt or "neg").  Cliking
"Clear" resets the system without adding or deducting points.  On a
toss-up the "Next Q" button moves to the next toss-up question in
case the current toss-up is not answered correctly by anyone.  On a
bonus, the only active button is the "Next Q" button, which, when
clicked, will prompt you for a number of points to award the team
given the bonus (0, 10, 20, 30, or a custom amount from 0 to 30).

PACKET FORMATTING

Currently, the parser only accepts packets in ACF format.  Each
question must contain at least one line beginning with the unformatted
text "ANSWER:" (in any case).  You must put a blank line before and
after each question.  Apart from an optional blank line before the
"ANSWER" line in a toss-up question, you cannot insert blank lines
within a question.  If a question has more than one answer line, then
that question is treated as a bonus question; otherwise, it is treated
as a toss-up.  Toss-ups and bonuses can appear intermingled or
separate.

FEEDBACK

If you notice any bugs, there is a SourceForge page
<https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=343070&atid=1435765>.
Please file your bugs and feature requests there.