{"slug": "i-m-running-the-icfp-programming-contest-2026", "title": "I'm running the ICFP programming contest (2026)", "summary": "The 29th annual ICFP Programming Contest began on July 24, 2026, designed by Frank Chiarulli, Henry Nelson, Eliot Hedeman, and the author to address AI agent challenges by introducing a new language called \"littleman\" that emphasizes spatial reasoning. The contest runs for 72 hours, and participants can sign up at icfpcontest2026.com, with a free textbook available for the littleman language.", "body_md": "## I'm running a programming contest\n\nIt started an hour ago\n\nJul 24, 2026\n\nI’ve spent the last few months working with my friends [Frank](https://www.frankchiarulli.com/), [Henry](https://github.com/hcnelson99), and [Eliot](https://github.com/eliothedeman) to design the 29th annual [ICFP Programming Contest](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICFP_Programming_Contest).\n\nThe contest began an hour ago (I meant to mention this sooner, sorry!) and runs for 3 days. If you’d like, you can [sign up at icfpcontest2026.com](https://icfpcontest2026.com/).\n\nOf course, we spent a *lot* of time thinking about how to design a fun programming contest in the age of AI agents. It would not be satisfying if the winning strategy for the contest was to run an unmonitored agent in a loop for 72 hours.\n\na simple program in the littleman language\n\nSo for the contest we’ve designed a new language we call “littleman.” Littleman programs are two dimensional and place a heavy emphasis on spatial reasoning - your little men must physically *walk over* instructions to execute them, and they exchange data with “pipes” that you draw in your program’s source code.\n\nWe’ve written a [textbook about the littleman programming language](https://icfpcontest2026.com/textbook). It’s open to everyone, so you can check it out even if you’re not registered for the contest.\n\nEnjoy!", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/i-m-running-the-icfp-programming-contest-2026", "canonical_source": "https://eieio.games/blog/im-running-the-icfp-programming-contest/", "published_at": "2026-07-25 05:29:51+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-25 06:53:28.678179+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-agents", "developer-tools"], "entities": ["ICFP Programming Contest", "Frank Chiarulli", "Henry Nelson", "Eliot Hedeman", "littleman"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/i-m-running-the-icfp-programming-contest-2026", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/i-m-running-the-icfp-programming-contest-2026.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/i-m-running-the-icfp-programming-contest-2026.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/i-m-running-the-icfp-programming-contest-2026.jsonld"}}