Author: Amir Ban
Date: 12:26:44 11/23/00
Go up one level in this thread
On November 23, 2000 at 12:33:12, Peter Fendrich wrote: >On November 22, 2000 at 12:10:18, Uri Blass wrote: > >>I found from my experience that Gandalf does not do preprocessing. >> >>I asked the programmer about it to know if this is always the case(because I >>suspected that maybe there are some rare cases when it is a preprocessor) and he >>told me that Gandalf does not care about the root position. >> >>I think that it is very good for analysis because I can generate a tree and use >>the scores of the program to decide about the move when I cannot do it with >>other programs because the score is not made from the same point of view. >> >>I remember also that Amir claimed that Junior does a little bit of preprocessing >>but he does not like it and thinks to change it >> >>I am interested to know about the behaviour of other top programs. >>I think that it is possible to divide top program by the reply to the question >>if they do preprocessing. >> >>I already know that Rebel and Tiger do preprocessing and I also know that >>shredder5 is a preprocessor by my definition(I do not have it but I asked the >>programmer about it and he told me that shredder5 is not a preprocessor by the >>average definition of it but but there is some preprocessing done at the root). >>I also know that crafty is a preprocessor(not by the average definition that I >>do not know). >> >>I am also interested to know what is the average definition. >>My definition is that if there is some preprocessing done at the root then the >>program is a preprocessor. >> >>Uri > >There are always problems to find clear and simple definitions. >I can see a problem even with this definition. > >Suppose that the program stores a table saying that knights are generally doing >worse in the corners than in the center of the board and this table is not >changed during the game. This is not preprocessing by your definition. > >Suppose that the program changes that table once in the root when we reach the >endgame. This is preprocessing by your definition. Let's say that you ignore >this case because the table is changed only once. Then you have the case that >all pieces have a similar table each that changes only once when endgame is >reached. Is that preprocessing? If not, suppose that you change these tables >whenever the game reaches different stages in the game (opening, middle game, >endgame etc). >Is this preprocessing? > It is preprocessing, and it is not minor at all. It will mix up your program's behavior in stage transitions. It will swap pieces to reach a stage, or avoid doing that, all for the wrong reasons. And when it sleepwalks into the next stage, the program will wake up with a surprising new eval. Amir >And so on... > >In my program Terra, there are some bitboard tables working like that but I >don't consider Terra being a preprocessor. > >//Peter
This page took 0 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.