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Subject: Re: Problem with TT

Author: Ricardo Gibert

Date: 23:06:18 07/11/03

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On July 11, 2003 at 22:39:35, Tom Likens wrote:

>On July 11, 2003 at 18:06:56, Ricardo Gibert wrote:
>
>>On July 11, 2003 at 17:50:21, Ricardo Gibert wrote:
>>
>>>On July 11, 2003 at 17:23:10, Tom Likens wrote:
>>>
>>>[snip]
>>>
>>>>I probably haven't solved your problem but of course these things
>>>>are insidious.  Also I could easily be misinterpreting some of
>>>>your code, if so I apologize.
>>>>
>>>>Some general advice, you probably should convert to 64-bit hash
>>>>keys to reduce the chance of collisions.
>>>
>>>
>>>Actually, every program should allow this to be configurable. For instance, an
>>>8-bit hash can be useful in debugging and a 32-bit hash is something interesting
>>>and not known for certain to be a bad idea.
>
>This is a valid point. It's intriguing that even though a 32-bit hash
>key *will* result in collisions, the real question is wheter those
>collisions will actually propagate back up the tree and cause the
>program to select an inferior move.
>
>>Just want to add that a 256-bit hash key can be useful for debugging too. By
>>contrasting 64-bit with 256-bit, one might conclude that the quality of the
>>random numbers is wanting.
>
>I'm not sure I follow this.  I'm guessing (without actually testing it)
>that the difference in the number of collisions between a 64-bit hash
>key and a 256-bit hash key would be vanishingly small for the typical
>search trees that modern programs explore.  Is there some other advantage
>of a 256-bit hash key over a 64-bit key that I'm missing?

Yes. When the difference is *not* vanishingly small, then you have discovered
your program has a bug. This is why it might be useful for debugging.

>
>regards,
>--tom



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