Getting ready for ICFP 2008

The rules for this year's ICFP contest have just been posted. Although the actual problem won't be posted until Friday July 11th, the rules themselves are interesting:
  • Your code will be run on a 1GB RAM 4GB swap 2GHz single-processor 32-bit AMD x86 Linux environment with no access to the Internet.
  • You have to submit source code.
  • You may optionally submit an executable as well (useful if for example you use a language that isn't one of the short list of languages provided by the contest organizers.)
  • Teams are limited to 5 members or less.
I have mixed feelings about these rules. The good news is:
  • It should be possible for most interested parties to recreate the contest environment by using the contest-provided Live CD. A computer capable of running the contest could be purchased new for around $350.
  • It seems that the focus will be on writing code in the language of the contestant's choice, rather than writing code in the language of the contest organizer's choice. This wasn't the case in some previous year's contests.
  • It provides a level playing field in terms of CPU resources available to contestants.
  • It ensures that the winning entry is documented. (A few years ago the contest winner never wrote up their entry, which was quite disappointing.)
The bad news is:
  • It penalizes contestants with low Internet bandwidth. The Live CD image is not yet available for download, and I anticipate some contestants will have difficulty downloading it in time to compete in the contest.
  • It penalizes non-Linux users, who are forced to use an alien development environment and operating system.
  • It penalizes languages too obscure to make the contest organizer's list. That goes against the whole "prove your language is the best" premise of the contest.
  • The target system is 32 bits and single core, which is at least five years out of date, and does little to advance the state of the art. This penalizes many languages and runtimes. For example OCaml has a harsh implementation limit on array size in 32 bit runtimes that is relaxed in 64-bit runtimes.
  • It seems as if there won't be any during-the-contest scoring system, so we will have to wait until the ICFP conference to find out how the contestants did.
Still, I'm hopeful that the contest itself will still be enjoyable. I look forward to reading the actual programming problem on Friday.

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