Alternate for buzzers in a competition

[Raghuramaiah Gompa]

We are hosting a math fair. We have teams competing.
I am just wondering whether there is anyway we could use
laptops to serve as buzzers. Laptops can be connected to
a central computer through wireless. Team can press a
button when they are ready. Can we write a perl code to
do this on the computers? Please help. .. Raghu
(e-mail address removed)

 

[John Bokma]

We are hosting a math fair. We have teams competing.
I am just wondering whether there is anyway we could use
laptops to serve as buzzers. Laptops can be connected to
a central computer through wireless. Team can press a
button when they are ready. Can we write a perl code to
do this on the computers?

What code do you have so far?

 

[usenet]

Can we write a perl code to do this on the computers?

That depends. Do you know Perl? If not, are you willing to learn Perl
for this project? Or, are we to understand that when you ask, "Can WE
write a program?" you really mean "Can YOU write a program for me?"

The usual approach for this sort of task would involve interprocess
communication (perldoc perlipc). FWIW, it's not the sort of program
that I would normally recommend for someone's first Perl script.

 

[xhoster]

We are hosting a math fair. We have teams competing.
I am just wondering whether there is anyway we could use
laptops to serve as buzzers. Laptops can be connected to
a central computer through wireless. Team can press a
button when they are ready. Can we write a perl code to
do this on the computers? Please help. .. Raghu

Yes. See IO::Socket::INET and IO::Select.

Xho

 

[Eric Bohlman]

Yes. See IO::Socket::INET and IO::Select.

That was my first thought too, but then I realized a simpler way would be
just to set up an HTTP server on the central computer and run a CGI script
that would deliver a very simple HTML form to each laptop and then record
when each submit button was pressed. That way you don't need to write
client software for the laptops.

 

[Raghuramaiah Gompa]

(e-mail address removed) wrote in


That was my first thought too, but then I realized a
simpler way would be
just to set up an HTTP server on the central computer
and run a CGI script
that would deliver a very simple HTML form to each
laptop and then record
when each submit button was pressed. That way you
don't need to write
client software for the laptops.

Thank you so much for all suggestions. I will try to
answer some of
the questions posted about my post.

I am new to perl, but I am making progress. I have been
learning so much from this group. Thanks a lot.

I wanted to know whether perl code can be used to solve
the solving - I wanted to know such a code already exists
- I wanted to know whether it is feasible.

It seems using a webpage would be optimal. I would have
to read more to actually understand thoroughly. But this
gives me a direction to pursue. Thank you so much. ..
Raghu

 

[DJ Stunks]

Yes. See IO::Socket::INET and IO::Select.

I'm sorry, Xho, you must phrase your response in the form of a
question. The question we were looking for there was "What is
IO::Socket::INET?" or "What is IO::Select?".

Stay tuned for player introductions after the break.

-jp