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11th Annual ICFP Contest Begins

Posted by timothy on from the prime-year-for-it dept.

Matthew Fluet writes "The 11th Annual ICFP Programming Contest begins July 11 (12:00 Noon PDT) and runs through July 14 (12:00 Noon PDT). As in the previous ten editions, this is your chance to show that your favorite programming language (or your team) is better than all others! In addition to prize money, the winner's programming language is declared the 'programming language of choice for discriminating hackers.' Contestants may use any programming language (or combination of languages) to show their skill. How will your favorite language fare?"

22 comments

  1. BASIC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    I plan to use BASIC. I can't wait until BASIC is declared the "programming language of choice for discriminating hackers."

    1. Re:BASIC by IdeaMan · · Score: 3, Funny

      Then may the Forth be with you!

      --
      They ARE out to get you simply because They are in it for themselves and they don't care about you.
    2. Re:BASIC by sinserve · · Score: 1

      Then may the Forth be with you!

      Great! Another Lisper! :-)

      Here is a LiveCD for getting things done. Though truth be told, Dylan is a beautiful language; and my heart goes out to the Gwydion hackers, this CMUCL/SBCLers considers them semantic blood relatives ;-)

  2. *sniff sniff* by thatskinnyguy · · Score: 1

    Why does this contest smell like that 1995 movie "Hackers" where everything was "the [item] for the 31337 Hacker"

    --
    The game.
  3. Malbolge by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Please, please won't someone really 1337 use Malbolge?

    1. Re:Malbolge by Bill,+Shooter+of+Bul · · Score: 1

      wow that is amazing. I can't believe this is the first time I'm hearing about Malbolge. I used to collect odd programming languages. I would have thought that Funge-98 was the craziest. Now, I'm not so sure. Malbolge seems like its more of a difficult to exploit buffer overflow than a language. Then again, maybe thats the point. Now, if you could implement an interpreter in funge-98 that would take brainfuck as its input and out put the corresponding Malbolge program. We'd all have a new ruler of the planet earth, if he or she desired to rule. as puny humans would be unable to stop anyone capable of the intellectual challenge from doing anything else they put their mind to.

      --
      Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
    2. Re:Malbolge by david.given · · Score: 3, Interesting

      wow that is amazing. I can't believe this is the first time I'm hearing about Malbolge. I used to collect odd programming languages. I would have thought that Funge-98 was the craziest. Now, I'm not so sure. Malbolge seems like its more of a difficult to exploit buffer overflow than a language. Then again, maybe thats the point.

      Unfortunately people have done cryptanalysis of Malebolge and have managed to find an, er, exploit: it's now possible to actually write programs for it on purpose, rather than having to do brute-force searches of the program space until you find one that matches. See this link for details. If you're really brave, here is an implementation of 99 green bottles in Malebolge. (You may be interested to note that the program is roughly twice as long as its output...)

  4. Re:Fist Prose by neokushan · · Score: 4, Funny

    Forgot to tick the box, didn't you?

    --
    +1 IDisagreeSoHeMustBeATrollOrAnAstroturferOrAShill
  5. If you also wondered what the hell ICFP was... by tlambert · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you also wondered what the hell ICFP was...

    "The ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Functional Programming (ICFP)"

    http://www.icfpconference.org/ ...it's their annual programming contest.

    -- Terry

    1. Re:If you also wondered what the hell ICFP was... by DorkusMasterus · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I was thinking:
      "Insane Clown F***ing Posse?"
      And then I thought: "What the heck could people program for them? And then I thought... ooohhhh..."
      And then I went to bed.

  6. what are the last 10 languages? by spir0 · · Score: 1

    "programming language of choice for discriminating hackers."

    ok, so if this is annual, then the language of choice is only valid for one year? what are the last 10, so we know they've past their use-by date?

    --
    The reason girls and Windows users don't understand UNIX is because all the documentation is in Man files.
    1. Re:what are the last 10 languages? by edschurr · · Score: 1

      The proclamation is given once. It isn't valid over an interval.

      Languages for discriminating hackers: C++ (2007), 2D, Haskell, Haskell, C++, OCaml, Haskell, OCaml.
      Languages that are fine tools for many applications: Perl (2007), D, Dylan, Haskell and C++, C++, C, Dylan, OCaml.

    2. Re:what are the last 10 languages? by spir0 · · Score: 1

      Languages for discriminating hackers: C++

      of course they are.. they're discriminating against everyone who doesn't use C++.

      --
      The reason girls and Windows users don't understand UNIX is because all the documentation is in Man files.
    3. Re:what are the last 10 languages? by spongman · · Score: 1
      actually, they (unintentionally) discriminating against those that use C++ as well:

      https://projects.cecs.pdx.edu/~jgmorris/icfpc08/index.cgi/ticket/9

    4. Re:what are the last 10 languages? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      2008 Winner: OCaml. My team most propably.

  7. 10 years! Wow! by Ben+Jackson · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The last one I participated in was the first one. The page is broken, but it was a program to play arbitrary sized Pousse by taking an input board and outputting your next move. It's hard to believe that was 10 years ago!

    And for those who are talking about language discrimination: Of course they discriminate! It's a *functional* programming contest, so the problems are very slanted. The format of the Pousse contest made that pretty clear, but the next year I think the contest was to optimize s-expressions or something equally unsubtle.

  8. Go /.!!! by KGIII · · Score: 1

    519 comments to bash Windows in another topic, 17 comments about an interesting hack competition... Yup... "News for nerds. Stuff that matters." *sighs and hangs head*

    --
    "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    1. Re:Go /.!!! by pxc · · Score: 1

      The other topic is about a day older. Besides, to really discuss this, you need a knowledge of functional programming.

      To bash windows, all you need is a rock (or Cygwin). ;-)

    2. Re:Go /.!!! by KGIII · · Score: 1

      LOL Anyhow, not on my screen. The very worst places to use Windows was what I was referring to. Then again, there are always Windows bashing threads. It's kind of like people picking on the retarded kid at school. Note: I'm actually a Windows fan, just not a fanboi. I think educated Windows bashing certainly has its place.

      I had hoped, mostly for a fly-on-the-wall perspective to see more comments in here. The whole, "This is better and why." Type of discussion would be a nice read for me though I'm, by no means, an advanced coder. I'm more a simplistic hack who sometimes manages to get what he wants only to discover someone's already done it better.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    3. Re:Go /.!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Besides, to really discuss this, you need a knowledge of functional programming.

      Nope -- you can use any programming language or style you like in the contest. It's only the conference it's attached to that's about FP.

      The contest problems do naturally tend to be in spaces where FP is a good approach, but that doesn't mean you have to use FP to win -- for example last year's winners used C++, which isn't an FP language in the slightest.

  9. Re:Fist Prose by sexconker · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    nope