At long last I've started on my Forth200x tasks. Here's the first
cut of the enhanced local variables using the { ... } notation.

Stephen

RfD - Enhanced local variable syntax
====================================
Stephen Pelc - 20 August 2006

Problem
=======
1) The current LOCALS| ... | notation explicitly forces all locals
to be initialised from the data stack.
2) 1) The current LOCALS| ... | notation defines locals in reverse
order to the normal stack notation.
3) When programming large applications, especially those interfacing
with a host operating system, there is a frequent need for temporary
buffers.
4) Current implementations show that creation and destruction of
local buffers are much faster than using ALLOCATE (14.6.1.0707)
and FREE (14.6.1.1605).

Dennis Ruffer wrote:

I noticed that today you can download the "CODEX" which is in a
"umz" file format.

http://www.icfpcontest.org/task.shtml

What the heck is "UMZ"?

And what is the codex for?

Regards,

John M. Drake

jmdrake_98@yahoo.com wrote:

The point of the contest will likely be related to decrypting the file
and reporting some information from it. As you can see if you look at
the ASCII strings embedded in the file, someone was evidently inspired
by "The Da Vinci Code" and we can guess there is some kind of hidden
message in the file. And knowing past contests, my guess is that
they'll give some algorithmic means to decode the file that isn't trivial.

Marcel Hendrix wrote:

("Bad wolf" may be familiar to Dr. Who devotees.)

And a bunch of Latin, and area 51 and some rot13 and subgenius
references and "paul is dead" (backwards, of course).

This year's contest is actually a tryout for a new season of the
X-Files in disguise. ;)

Dennis Ruffer wrote:

I would assert that the sponsors of this contest have failed ALL
Freshman Composition and/or Technical Writing ever taken.

Neither http://www.icfpcontest.org/ *NOR* their Rules/FAQ page
http://icfpcontest.org/rulesfaq.shtml contain any hint about what the
contest is about.

If programmers [CAN NOT]/[WILL NOT] communicate with other humans, of
what use are they?

OK, I'll never see sixty again

Richard Owlett wrote:

Ian Osgood wrote:

Richard Owlett wrote:

Yeah, and that something that's missing starts when the contest starts.

Let me guess-- in school when the teacher handed out tests upside down
and told the class not to peek before the start of the test, you were
the one who was unable to contain your curiosity and wait.

The contest starts noon, EDT. One will expect all your questions will
be answered in a bit more than 19 hours from now. Good luck if you're
choosing the enter.

Dennis Ruffer speakeasy.net> wrote:

I think there will be plenty of entries at the low end of the "small
team" as described on <http://www.icfpcontest.org/rulesfaq.shtml> :

At a guess, I would expect the entries from the 0 person teams don't
take long to judge.

-- w

Dennis Ruffer wrote:

Rules are posted: looks like its about implementing a simple virtual
machine. Too bad nobody here knows anything about that. ;)

Ian