2006 ICFP Programming Contest Source Release 16 Jul 2007
Cult of the Bound Variable
Codename: Homework 7
This archive contains the source code for the 2006 ICFP Programming
Contest and the tools we used to make it.
This source release contains major spoilers for the Codex. The
contest is entirely self-contained, meaning you can still play it
without any special resources (other than a computer and compiler)
by downloading the codex and the Universal Machine specification
from boundvariable.org. If you haven't done this, we recommend it as
a much more fun and interactive introduction than reading
documentation and source code. Stop right now and go get that Codex!
Another good introduction to the contest is our Technical Report
(though it also contains spoilers):
"The Cult of the Bound Variable: The 9th Annual ICFP
Programming Contest." Tom Murphy VII, Daniel Spoonhower,
Chris Casinghino, Daniel R. Licata, Karl Crary,
Robert Harper. 2006. Technical Report CMU-CS-06-163
http://reports-archive.adm.cs.cmu.edu/anon/2006/abstracts/06-163.html
Even if you are still working through the Codex, a few things
included in the source release may be of interest and are
more-or-less free of spoilers. The first is our collection of UM
implementations, which are in the directory um and its various
subdirectories. Not all are written by experts in the language in
question. The fastest UM is in the x86-tom directory (assuming you
have an x86 processor) and the most full-featured is in the um
directory itself. Most interestingly, the compiler that we used to
build the contest materials is in um/humlock/. This produces UM
binaries from an ML-like input language called UML. Most of the rest
of the contest source code is written in UML. The file
um/humlock/README explains how to use Humlock. There is also a UM
assembler in um/whistleock/.
The directories bureaucracy/ and seeds/ contain "deleted scenes"
that didn't make it into the final version of the Codex.
The remainder of the directories contain the source code for various
parts of the contest. Many have standalone versions that can be
built from their own directories, but umix/ brings them all
together. If you want to build the Codex, start in the umix/
directory.
Most of the subdirectories contain README files explaining what the
code does and how to use it. Everything is licensed under the GNU
GPL (see the file COPYING) except where noted in a README file.
Enjoy!
- 2006 Contest Judges
Tom Murphy VII
Daniel Spoonhower
Chris Casinghino
Daniel R. Licata
Karl Crary
Robert Harper
(see story/STORY_CONTEST_CREDITS for full credits)