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ICFP Contest Underway
iseff writes "The ICFP Contest (reported first here) is now underway. There's probably still some time for us slackers to code up something for the first round. This year's problem is similar to the board game Cops and Robbers. What I find cool about this year is the split into two parts -- code the original spec, then wait, get a new spec, and modify. Plus, any language is accepted, even though it's a 'functional programming' contest."
Participants need to write programs that control bots - cop bots and robber bots on a pre-defined map. The goal of the robber bots (of which there's only one in the first round) is to rob as many banks as possible (to rob a bank, a robber needs to simply arrive at its location), and that of the cop bots is to minimize the amount of money stolen - and if possible, catch the robber. The map can be seen as a directed graph with various edge attributes that decide how fast and in what direction a particular bot can move.
What is really interesting though, is the format in which the tournament is going to be played. Every game will consist of 5 cop bots going against 1 robber bot. The cop bots will be written by individual participants - and will have the capability to communicate with each other, suggesting 'plans', and voting on them to elect the best one. The whole team gets rewarded if the robber is caught, but you also get individual bonuses for individual achievements. This adds a byzantine-generals like dimension to the problem, since the strategy is always a mix between cooperative effort and individual greed.
The last and most important twist is the fact that the second round is worth 'significantly' more than the first, and involves adapting your bots to a modified version of the problem. What this modified version will be is a closely guarded secret... but it means that it's probably a good idea to spend as much time thinking about the design as thinking about the strategy.
LISP really can't be categorized as a post-C language, as it was created roughly 15 years before C.
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