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Subject: Re: pruning vs extensions vs qsearch - are these all effectively the sam

Author: Dave Gomboc

Date: 01:08:47 11/29/02

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On November 28, 2002 at 23:41:52, Uri Blass wrote:

>On November 28, 2002 at 21:57:59, Dave Gomboc wrote:
>
>>On November 28, 2002 at 19:23:36, David Rasmussen wrote:
>>
>>>On November 28, 2002 at 17:36:22, Dave Gomboc wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>I posted a corrected version of my post where I included a half-smiley.  This is
>>>>because the comment is half a joke, but also half serious.
>>>>
>>>>Philisophically, the main search already needs to deal with how best to search
>>>>at huge depths vs. how best to search at tiny depths.  Some search code ignores
>>>>the difference; it is these cases that probably depend on the presence of a
>>>>separate q-search the most.  Search code which is designed to be adaptive
>>>>according to search depth should not have trouble encompassing q-search as well.
>>>>
>>>>Practically, it may still be clearer to express what needs to be done near the
>>>>tips with a specific q-search routine.
>>>>
>>>
>>>That was sort of my points also: In principle, there aren't any differences
>>>between normal search and qsearch. Qsearch can be "expressed" within the
>>>framework of normal search with pruning/extensions. My other point was, that
>>>design matters a lot, and that what might be "semantically" equivalent, might
>>>not be when it comes to implementing, and/or expressing what to be done. A
>>>separate qsearch function is a very good idea, designwise, IMO.
>>>
>>>/David
>>Hmm.  My gut feeling is that a well-written main search makes a distinct
>>q-search routine of no benefit, and that separate q-search routines are harmful
>>to program development because they allow the developer to be lazy when
>>implementing the main search.
>>
>>Dave
>
>I do not understand
>
>If you want different rules at different plies you can have many search
>functions(search at remaining depth 1,search at remaining depth 2,....) and you
>can have one function.
>
>It is only a question of style of writing.
>
>The developer is always allowed to be lazy in implementing the main search even
>without qsearch.
>
>I do not see how not having qsearch help the programmer not to be lazy.
>
>Uri

It's not a matter of how you divvy up the code, it's a matter of how you think
about your code.

Dave



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