Author: Mogens Larsen
Date: 13:57:49 07/17/00
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On July 17, 2000 at 16:09:17, Ralf Elvsén wrote: >What I mean is that ponder = ON is a feature that every program must >have, at least if it wants to belong to the set of program whose >strength can be assessed by playing matches. Not true. In most matches the hardware available would be unable to use ponder on without skewing the results significantly. It's very relevant against human opposition, but that is a minor, although important, special case. >If a program performs poorly >and the programmer came and said "I have only spent 5 minutes to implement >time management with ponder = ON" , it would be a poor "excuse" since this >is as natural as evaluation or whatever. So regardless of what we know >about the programmers investment in this feature we can pit his program >against opposition and get an accurate estimate. However, if we use >ponder = OFF and don't know if this is supported we can't use these >results with the same confidence since this is not something that is >natural to do. It's another variable varied and we don't know in which >direction. Most, if not all, programs starts as ponder off programs only, so I think you're ignoring how a program is developed. AFAIK, ponder off is always supported. At least that's the experience I have from the programs I've tested where I've been in contact with the programmer. It's the easiest way to test for bugs against another program on one machine. >In principal I agree with Bob: matches with ponder = OFF should be >looked upon with utter suspicion. There's no reason for suspicion, because the same arguments applies to ponder on without taking statistics into consideration. The games with ponder are most likely better, because more time is available, but testing isn't about esthetics. >I would be glad if all programmers invested time in ponder = OFF and >notified us. I doubt it will ever happen. Most of them invest time in ponder off and when that works properly they implement ponder on. There's no need for further development. Fritz 6 can play without ponder and I think that applies for all programs. Best wishes... Mogens
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