quiz

quiz is a simple program that lets any user create and/or take quizzes.

It features a quiz creator, and the core quiz program.

It can also save scores to a custom file, read a custom quiz database, use a custom username, and store how many questions were taken.

Initially written on March 24, 2021. Current version can be found in quiz.c, or by running make version (see Installation)

If you plan to work on quiz, be sure to read INDENTATION.

Support this project: https://saloniamatteo.top/donate.html

Flags

Currently, quiz supports the following command-line flags:

Flag	Argument	Description
-c	Required	Enter Quiz-Creator mode
-d	Required	Load a custom quiz database
-E	None	Only run the QuizDB preprocessor
-h	None	Print help and exit
-n	None	Set username to "Unknown"
-s	Required	Save scores to file
-r	None	Disallow special commands (exit, quit, stop)
-u	Required	Set custom username to use in save file

Quiz-Creator

quiz features a Quiz-Creator, which simply lets any user to create quiz databases, especially if they do not want to manually enter the question ID everytime.

For example, to create a new quiz database with 3 questions, run ./quiz -c mynewdb. The file mynewdb will be used to store the new database, and will be created if it does not exist. You can also add new questions to existing databases with the same command.

Next, you will get the following output:

[Entering Quiz-Creator mode...]
Choose how many questions you want to enter.
> 3
OK. Using 3 questions.
Question No.1
Enter Question.
> Who created this program (quiz)?
Enter answer.
> Matteo Salonia
Enter how many points to give to the user.
> 50
Question No.2
Enter Question.
> Did you donate to Matteo?
Enter answer.
> Yes
Enter how many points to give to the user.
> 100
Question No.3
Enter Question.
> Do you like this program?
Enter answer.
> Absolutely
Enter how many points to give to the user.
> 45

The resulting file mynewdb will have the following contents:

# QuizDB generated automatically by quiz on dd/mm/YYYY at HH:MM:SS
ID: 1;; Question: Who created this program (quiz)?;; Answer: Matteo Salonia;; Points: 50
ID: 2;; Question: Did you donate to Matteo?;; Answer: Yes;; Points: 100
ID: 3;; Question: Do you like this program?;; Answer: Absolutely;; Points: 45

(Note: dd/mm/YYYY correspond to day, month, year, and HH:MM:SS correspond to hours, minutes, seconds)

Installation

quiz uses GNU AutoTools to increase its portabilty and flexibility.

Normally, users should run the following commands, to install quiz:

./configure
make
make install

This will install quiz, and the default QuizDB quiz.db (in /usr/local/share/quiz)

If, for some reason, you cannot run the commands above, run autoreconf --install, then retry.

Statically linking & building

If you want to statically link quiz to share it, all you need is a compiler. (No fancy libraries used)

(NOTE: I recommend using musl-gcc instead of gcc because program size is much, much smaller (See Musl-GCC vs GCC))

Then, run the following:

cd quiz
make static

Musl-GCC vs GCC

• Time (Static) [time make static]

  • Musl-GCC compilation time: 0,11s user 0,02s system 47% cpu 0,270 total
  • GCC compilation time: 0,19s user 0,03s system 52% cpu 0,401 total

• Time (Dynamic) [time make]

  • Musl-GCC compilation time: 0,09s user 0,02s system 47% cpu 0,232 total
  • GCC compilation time: 0,13s user 0,00s system 50% cpu 0,250 total

• Executable Size (Static) [ls -l quiz]

  • Musl-GCC size: 73k
  • GCC size: 978k

• Executable Size (Dynamic) [ls -l quiz]

  • Musl-GCC size: 16k
  • GCC size: 18k

Help

If you need help, you can:

• Create an issue;
• Open a pull request;
• Send me an email (saloniamatteo@pm.me or matteo@mail.saloniamatteo.top).