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Subject: Sorry

Author: Andreas Guettinger

Date: 15:20:05 03/31/04

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On March 31, 2004 at 16:32:25, Andreas Guettinger wrote:

>On March 31, 2004 at 14:00:27, Russell Reagan wrote:
>
>>On March 31, 2004 at 13:23:23, Andrew Wagner wrote:
>>
>>>    1.) No move generator can get through this test without being right.
>>
>>At first thought, this seems like a bad idea to me (assuming it is correct after
>>only 100 test positions). You are testing 100 cases out of some huge number and
>>then assuming that part of your program is correct. If there is a bug in your
>>move generator later on, you will look at everything except your move generator
>>because you assumed that was working correctly.
>>
>>I think that if you used some test suite like this along with many other tests,
>>then you might be able to have confidence in your move generator. This test
>>suite idea sounds like a good way to find major bugs in a move generator. But
>>passing this test suite doesn't really prove a move generator's correctness, and
>>proving correctness is what you are claiming by "no move generator can get
>>through this test without being right."
>>
>>I think you need to do several different tests to be confident that your program
>>is right. You could do a test suite like this, run simple test suites of mate in
>>ones and see if your program solves them all, run lots of perfts and compare
>>with other engines (automate something to run overnight or for a few days), and
>>read over your source code slowly, asking yourself questions like, "what does
>>this line of code REALLY say?" Lots of times I write something, then I narrow
>>down a bug to that line of code, and I realize that what I wrote doesn't do what
>>I intended it to do. It takes a lot of different approaches to be confident
>>about your program's correctness, and even then, it's hard to be 100% sure.
>
>I think what he does is not the right way, but his test positions are a bit to
>simple.

I think what he does _is_ the right way...

(Happens by editing the posts too much and not proofreading....)

regards
Andy



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