

ICFP Programming Contest started - eru
http://www.icfpcontest.org/2011/06/task-description-contest-starts-now.html

======
haberman
Every year I check out the ICFP problem statement to see if anyone can match
the delightfulness of the ICFP 2006 Challenge (The "Cult of the Bounds
Variable": <http://www.boundvariable.org/>).

It looks like they may have done it this year. Seeing the images of the cards
with illustrations was when I really knew this year would be special.

The _only_ thing this lacks compared to 2006 IMO is the replayability aspect.
The 2006 format is a binary image that you download and explore, and when you
solve puzzles it awards you points. This is an AI that pits you against fellow
competition members, which is cool but doesn't have the same
exploration/discovery aspect.

------
waqf
The S and K combinators are simply referred to here as S and K, but the
pictures of them resemble a Starling and a Kestrel respectively. This is
surely a reference to Raymond Smullyan's _To Mock A Mockingbird_ , a ...
unique ... book in which combinators are personified (avified?) as birds.

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pom
Although I had stumbled upon the S and K combinators with Unlambda
(<http://www.madore.org/~david/programs/unlambda/>) I didn't know about
Smullyan's book and this related paper by Keenan
(<http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~cs655/readings/mockingbird.html>)

Sure seems like an interesting contest this year even though I didn't people
still cared about Magic: the Gathering.

~~~
route66
raganwald has some nice thoughts and code devotes to our feathered friends.

[https://github.com/raganwald/homoiconic/blob/master/2008-10-...](https://github.com/raganwald/homoiconic/blob/master/2008-10-29/kestrel.markdown#readme)

------
kingatomic
When I first glanced over this I read "ICP Programming Contest Started" and
tried to imagine JuggaloCode.

    
    
      #include <magnets.howdotheywork>
      #include <hatchet>
    
      gettin ill{
         holla{"RAINBOWS N SHIT"}
      }
    

I died a little inside typing all of that.

