Reduce the number of negative test results.

[gunnar]

Many tests have results in negative form ([!...]), allowing any move except one or a few. This has turned out to often be problematic and a frequent source of "regression noise". Therefore most of those tests should be changed. Possible modifications are:

• Change to restricted_genmove when a specific problem should be addressed or when it's unclear what the globally best move is.
• Change to a positive result, when the globally acceptable moves can be determined and restricted_genmove is not more appropriate.
• Remove the test if there's not much point in it.

The current (GNU Go 3.7.8) number of negative test results for different test suites are

56 trevorc.tst
35 trevorb.tst
30 nngs3.tst
29 trevord.tst
22 trevor.tst
16 blunder.tst
12 trevora.tst
11 strategy4.tst
11 nngs4.tst
11 nngs1.tst
10 nngs2.tst
8 arend.tst
7 strategy3.tst
7 ninestones.tst
5 olympiad2004.tst
5 auto03.tst
4 handtalk.tst
4 century2002.tst
4 auto02.tst
3 strategy5.tst
3 strategy.tst
2 strategy2.tst
2 owl.tst
2 nngs.tst
2 nando.tst
2 manyfaces1.tst
2 dniwog.tst
2 buzco.tst
2 auto04.tst
1 semeai.tst
1 manyfaces.tst
1 gifu03.tst
1 ego.tst
1 auto01.tst
1 atari_atari.tst
1 arend2.tst
1 arb.tst
1 9x9.tst
1 13x13b.tst

for a total of 319.

To create this list, do

egrep -c '^#\? \[!' *.tst | grep -v ':0' | tr : ' ' | awk '{print $2 " " $1}' | sort -nr

[gunnar]

Fixes for arb, arion, ego, nicklas1, nicklas5, niki, strategy2, and viking.

[gunnar]

Fixes for gifu03, manyfaces, and strategy.

[gunnar]

Fixes for a few tests each in several files.

[gunnar]

From arend_7_8.12:

+# Not clear what is best, but strengthening one of the weak groups
+# is urgent. /ab
 loadsgf games/nngs/AdaGeek-gnugo-3.1.18-200201071333.sgf 24
 230 reg_genmove black
-#? [!F7]
+#? [E9|G7|H2|K6|N4|D6]

N4 should be N5?

[arend]

Fixes for nngs.tst

[arend]

Right about nngs:230, patch is updated.

[gunnar]

Partial fix for trevorc.tst.

[arend]

Updated current "high score list".

[gunnar]

partial fixes for trevorb.tst and nngs1.tst

[gunnar]

Fixes for most of trevora.tst and strategy4.tst

[gunnar]

This is now down to 241,

31 trevorc.tst
29 trevord.tst
29 nngs3.tst
22 trevor.tst
16 blunder.tst
11 nngs4.tst
10 nngs2.tst
9 trevorb.tst
8 arend.tst
7 strategy3.tst
7 ninestones.tst
5 olympiad2004.tst
5 nngs1.tst
5 auto03.tst
4 handtalk.tst
4 century2002.tst
4 auto02.tst
3 strategy5.tst
3 strategy.tst
2 strategy4.tst
2 strategy2.tst
2 owl.tst
2 nngs.tst
2 nando.tst
2 manyfaces1.tst
2 dniwog.tst
2 buzco.tst
2 auto04.tst
1 trevora.tst
1 semeai.tst
1 manyfaces.tst
1 gifu03.tst
1 ego.tst
1 auto01.tst
1 atari_atari.tst
1 arend2.tst
1 arb.tst
1 9x9.tst
1 13x13b.tst

but it doesn't seem meaningful to keep this open forever, so I'm closing it as "fixed" in 3.8.