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Subject: Re: Algorithms matter more...?

Author: Daniel Clausen

Date: 13:04:34 05/11/02

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On May 11, 2002 at 15:53:33, Russell Reagan wrote:

>I've heard people talk about how it matters more which algorithms you use more
>than it matters what language you choose or doing little optimizations here and
>there. I'm curious if this means that instead of worrying about if "this will
>run a little faster if I use a pointer instead of a global variable", they
>recommend that I should spend my time worrying about algorithms.
>
>Well, I'm not really sure how I'm supposed to do this. I mean, as far as I know,
>there are alpha-beta and it's cousins, null move, etc. So what exactly am I
>supposed to be worrying about? One thing that comes to mind is working on better
>move ordering for alpha-beta. Is this an example of what you mean by "working on
>using better algorithms"?

A _very_ good one. :) I would happily exchange a speed-decrease of a factor of
10 with the move-ordering of, let's say Chess Tiger. :) [just trust me on this
;)]

Things like "use a pointer instead of a global variable" often only yield to a
small percentage of overall speed-increase (if at all..). But things like
move-ordering work exponential, so...

HTH, YMMV, IMHO :)

Sargon



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