[Termtools] New TPDB

[Aart Middeldorp]

Dear Hans,

> On the color list Aart complained that we seem to ignore all remarks on
> the competition made last year in Seattle. I think this is not true: we
> are aware of these remarks but do not see how these suggestions would
> solve the observed problems. For sure we should discuss the future of
> the competition at WST.

I'm not sure whether "complained" is the right word here. On the
color mailing list it was suggested (by one of the organizers of
the competition) that I repeat the presentation given at last
year's WST business meeting at the upcoming workshop in Nancy, to
which I responded:

 > I'll bring my laptop :-) I wonder though whether a repetition
 > of the talk will serve any purpose; it seems to me that the
 > termination competition organizers largely ignored the points
 > raised in the discussion that followed:
 >
 > http://lists.lri.fr/pipermail/termtools/2006-August/000299.html

To quote one sentence from the protocol:

 > Time is wasted when everybody need to reimplement everything all over.

I may be wrong here, but don't the new rules actually encourage this?

"Every tool is applied on every system in TPDB in the corresponding
  categories, each with a given time limit. Like previous editions of
  the competition, the time limit is likely to be between 1 and 5
  minutes [...] a score table will be presented for each category,
  by giving one point for each (correct) answer."

Considering the fast SAT based implementations that many tools employ
these days, even with a time limit of 1 minute an awful lot of different
techniques can be considered to obtain an answer (and will have to be
considered if the aim is to collect many points).

Why didn't I write this when the rules of this year's competition were
announced? Lack of time, for sure, but also because I am getting tired
of what I perceive as "vechten tegen de bierkaai". My sole interest
here is to make the termination competition attractive for newcomers
with the aim of further stimulating and broadening research on all
aspects of termination.

Hans, may I suggest a friendly discussion over a glass of wine at the
upcoming workshop in Nancy to determine whether there are any measures
that can be easily implemented to make this year's competition more
attractive?

Cheers,

Aart