From the 10th to the 19th of October I was travelling, specifically to Singapore to present the results of the ICFP '25 Programming Contest. As seems to almost always happen, the Japanese team Unagi (and another Japanese team, MOYOU) won the contest, using their preferred programming language Rust. Also as in most years, most solutions used SAT encodings, simulated annealing, or other such methods. Some teams did use automata learning (as our reference solution did), but this was uncommon. The writeups page has many more details, including an in-character personal reflection by Adso.

The conference was indeed massive, and it was good to catch up with many folks that I know (such as Gabriele Keller, Christine Rizkallah, Zilin Chen and Michel Steuwer), but I must say that I found few talks or papers that I actually found noteworthy or compelling. Perhaps the most interesting was the few papers and presentations I saw given by Anton Lorenzen. I'm sure this is more a problem with me than with the authors, all of which I'm sure have produced very good work, except of course for the LMPL Workshop which promotes use of the dreaded LLMs in PL research. I studiously avoided attending that, and was pleased to find some likeminded colleagues.

While I love to eat the food in Singapore, I always find the weather almost unbearable. I try to do what locals do, and transit via underground and indoor connections between buildings, but I inevitably end up having to walk for 10–20 minutes outside and end up feeling horribly wet from a mixture of humidity and sweat. Nonetheless, I thank very much Ilya Sergey and the others who organised the event, and arranged for me to travel there and present.

Ego clamávi quóniam exaudísti me, Deus: inclína aurem tuam, et exáudi verba mea: custódi me, Dómine, ut pupíllam óculi: sub umbra alárum tuárum prótege me.

I had just flown back from Singapore, so I wasn't able to be present for All Saints Ainslie singing Tallis' Hear the voice and prayer but I did record myself singing all parts to it a week earlier before I flew out:

Hear the voice and prayer of thy servants,

that they make before thee this day:

That thine eyes may be open towards this house night and day,

Ever towards this place, ever towards this place

Of which thou hast said "My name shall be there".

And when thou hear'st, have mercy on them.

I had just flown into Sydney and coming down with a cold from a nightmare flight, but I was still able to stop by Christ Church St. Laurence for their Solemn High Mass. It was a lovely high church service. I wish we were as liturgically refined in Canberra. The Choir performed most of G.P. da Palestrina's Missa Aeterna Christi Munera, which is based on the eponymous Gregorian Chant melody, and Vaughan William's O Taste and See.

Lætétur cor quæréntium Dóminum: quaérite Dóminum, et confirmámini: quaérite fáciem eius semper.

While I was still recovering from a cold, I sang with our choir at All Saints Ainslie for Anerio's gorgeous piece, Christus Factus Est (although the initial gorgeous passage is very reminiscent of another piece).

Christus factus est pro nobis obédiens	Christ became obedient for us,
usque ad mortem:	Even unto death:
Mortem autem crucis.	Death on the cross.
Propter quod et Deus exaltavit illum	Wherefore God has exalted him,
Et dedit illi nomen quod est super omne nomen.	And given him a name above all other names.

The Anerio was unaccompanied, and we had only piano accompaniment for the other music. Still, we sounded very nice I think.

Gaudeamus omnes in Dómino, diem festum celebrántes sub honóre Sanctórum ómnium: de quorum solemnitáte gaudent Angeli, et colláudant Fílium Dei.

Because this was the dedication feast for All Saints Ainslie, we sang Darke's Communion Service in F Major as well as I Sat Down by John Bairstow, with text taken from the Song of Solomon:

I sat down under his shadow with great delight,

and his fruit was sweet to my taste.

He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was Love.

I sat down under his shadow.

We also had a small celebration of our choir and sanctuary party at Corroboree park in Ainslie.

We were blessed with a gorgeous sunset to conclude the evening.