Shlomi says (in reply to Bill Raymond):
<<I don't understand you exactly. Do you mean something that one of the
subsequent positions needed to solve the state was already entered by the
scan and so won't be checked?>>
Shlomi, you're so polite. My inclination is to suggest that Bill has
his head where the sun don't shine.
Maybe what he really means is that in a given solver design, an
intermediate position might be "intractable" in one case but not in another.
I. e., the time it takes the solver to reach a verdict might be much longer
in one case and not in the other. What I cannot conceive is that a correct
and definitive verdict would be different in the two cases.
Early on in my acquaintance with Bill, we had problems in our mutual
understanding of the distinction between "impossible" and "intractable".
It's two different things for a solver to say "I guarantee you that there is
no solution for this particular position" versus "I can't find a solution in
the time or space you have allotted to me."
Best regards, -----------------Adrian
Received on Tue Jun 25 2002 - 04:14:47 IDT