On 5/24/07, Chaslot G (MICC) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Question for native English speakers: do you think this technique is best described by "progressive unpruning" or "progressive widening"?
Widening and pruning have different implications, at least to me (a native English speaker). Widening is suggestive of a single expanse and the operation is happening all along one side of the expanse in a uniform manner. A road, a meadow or a railway bed might all be widened. Pruning is suggestive of a branched, network or complex structure, and the operation is happening at selected points to achieve a goal. A hedge, a railway timetable or a set of laws might all be pruned. Having said that, pruning in computer science has a specific meaning (since the 1973 Scientific American article by Shannon), "To take away or remove (superfluities, deformities)," based on existing uses of the terms of languages, texts and laws[1]. This definition of pruning doesn't seem to apply, since the first expansion of the search tree is not performed by finding and removing superfluous or bad nodes, but by pure chance. If there has been no pruning, there can be no reversal of the pruning, no unpruning. So I'd go with "progressive widening". Or that's my 2p. cheers stuart [1] I don't know this by heart, but I have access to http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50191254 because I'm Oxford-based. _______________________________________________ computer-go mailing list [email protected] http://www.computer-go.org/mailman/listinfo/computer-go/
