Author: Tim Mirabile
Date: 14:56:38 03/20/99
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On March 19, 1999 at 20:45:53, KarinsDad wrote: >Issue #2: Program A has a feature that Program B also has, but it is turned on >in the tournaments for Program A and not for Program B. This has validity if you >are talking about features which are not defaults and which can also be turned >off and on by the operators. If Program A has the feature by default and Program >B does not, too bad. I think this is the heart of the matter. Programs are tested using the default settings, correct? And the default state of any program is "no knowledge of who the opponent is" - regardless of whether it has a feature which could make use of this knowledge. By telling some programs who the opponent is, is the same as changing its settings from the default. So is this good/bad/fair/unfair? That depends on what the true purpose of the SSDF list it. If it is just a sporting competition, with the idea of simply maximizing results against the other programs on the list, then I don't see it as being terribly bad. The only thing a bit unfair here is that SSDF tests new programs against older ones sometimes. Older programs could easily have had this feature - it's not some kind of new technology. Perhaps this feature was never included in programs until now because programmers had no reason to believe that SSDF testers would actually use it. Now if the true purpose of the SSDF is to provide consumers with a guide as to the strength of various commercial programs for use in making purchasing decisions, I don't see how using the feature would be helpful. In fact, it would skew the ratings even more than they are now in the direction of being only accurate within the SSDF pool. To take this to the extreme, someone could design a program which uses an entirely different engine and book for each program on the SSDF. If this program is allowed to know which program it is playing each time, how could its SSDF rating possibly be indicative of its strength against an unknown opponent (i.e. the consumer).
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