[Icfp04-discuss] Getting results

[Benjamin Pierce]

> > Yes, we'd really like to keep the relative performance of the various
> > teams'
> > entries secret until the official announcement of winners at ICFP.
> 
> So I assume the winners know before everyone else that they won? Just
> checking proper preconditions... :-)

Right: we will be in contact with the winners as soon as we know who they
are.  

> Actually, I am seriously thinking about using this project in a course next
> Fall: Start students out writing ants by hand, and get them so mad at this
> that they will develop more and more tools over the quarter. :-) Anyone have
> any ideas as to whether that's a good or a bad idea? It's a "Software
> Construction" course, emphasis on OO design and development tools like
> profilers, debuggers, automated testing, etc.

I was toying with a similar idea, actually.  I know that several of the
earlier programming contest tasks have been used successfully in courses --
they tend to be about the right size for a several-week project (:-), and
they are well debugged by the time the contest ends.

    - B

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BENJAMIN C. PIERCE, Professor                                               
Dept. of Computer & Information Science     
University of Pennsylvania                                    +1 215 898-2012
3330 Walnut St.                                          Fax: +1 215 898-0587
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