>> The main problem right now is that a lot of "smart" code actually >> weakens the program. > > ... > we are here essentially trying to patch a bot weakness. The usual way to > test strength is by playing other bots. Since they also have the > weakness, and anyhow won't steer the game in that direction, patching > that weakness does not make a huge difference against them, and can > easily be overshadowed by any collateral change, such as being slightly > slower. On the other hand, it might still make them stronger against > humans.
I fully agree; in fact I'm getting increasingly passionate on this issue :-) I feel some good ideas are getting thrown away (along with lots of bad ones) because they are initially only considered on blitz time settings, and only on self-play or against one opponent. I think Very Large Test Suites are the way forward; supported with play on go servers. Darren -- Darren Cook, Software Researcher/Developer http://dcook.org/work/ (About me and my work) http://dcook.org/blogs.html (My blogs and articles) _______________________________________________ Computer-go mailing list [email protected] http://dvandva.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/computer-go
