Author: Peter Berger
Date: 11:21:00 02/24/03
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On February 24, 2003 at 14:05:21, Uri Blass wrote: >On February 24, 2003 at 13:37:50, Robert Hyatt wrote: > >>3. The pros are much more organized in testing, and have multiple machines >>dedicated >>to playing programs, with a person or persons responsible for looking at the >>games played >>to see what is going on... > >I have no data to prove that theory and I believe that top amateurs also get a >lot of machine time by beta testers. > >Uri I agree that top amateur engines probably get quite a lot of machine time by beta testers aka users, too. But there is a major difference to professionals IMHO - they don't really _get_ the time, decisions what to test or how to test are usually done by the users themselves and the testing is in most cases not organized. Users test what they find interesting, with settings that they are most interested in etc. etc. That's logical as for the beta-testers the testing is a hobby, too, not a job or an organized project. But to draw any useful conclusions from the data is very difficult for a programmer IMHO, even if the beta-testers test very carefully. Decide for yourself - what would you prefer? 6 computers donated to you to test movei on your own, or 10 betatesters who run testmatches with movei as they see fit? I think beta-testing of amateur engines doesn't suffer from too little enthusiasm of the testers, but I am sure professional engines are tested in a much more "scientific" and better organized way. Peter
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