[computer-go] Progressive unpruning in Mango 19x19

[Richard Brown]

Nick Wedd wrote:

> I prefer "unprune" to "graft".
> 
> "Graft" implies adding something to a tree which does not naturally 
> belong there.

Not "naturally"?

Consider a tree, to which you, the tree surgeon, have taken a pair of shears,
and lopped off a branch.  What has been pruned, has been pruned.


Q.  By what method will you now re-attach that branch to the tree?

A.  By grafting.


> "Unprune" suggests that there is a branch which was 
> implicitly there all along, you earlier decided not to consider it, but 
> you have now reversed that decision.

Just as there was a branch, both implicitily and explicitly, that you decided
to lop off with your shears.  Now that you have decided you didn't really want
to lop it off, and reversed your decision, by what method will you re-attach it?

Grafting.

> If you want to reject "unprune" because it "isn't a word", then use 
> "grow" or "widen", which suggest adding something which is naturally 
> part of that tree.

If you want to reject "graft" you'll have to come up with a more convincing argument.

I assert, further, that the terms "scion" and "stock" could be given explicit
technical definitions in this context.

-- 
Richard L. Brown             Office of Information Services
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rbrown at uwsa.edu              Madison, WI  53715