`gamma` enters only as `gamma * gamma`, so the sign was squared away:
measured against the old public-field form, `ConstantDrift(-0.0833)`
produced results bit identical to `ConstantDrift(0.0833)`. The sign was
neither rejected nor honoured — it vanished.
It could not be checked while the field was a public tuple position,
because there was nothing to intercept. Validating inside
`variance_for_elapsed` would have been worse: it runs in the sweep, so a
construction-time mistake would panic mid-inference, and `Gaussian::from_ms`
is a worked example of why that is the wrong place — rejecting NaN there
turned the NonFiniteResult reporting path into a crash.
So `ConstantDrift::new` is the only way in and it checks, with `gamma()`
to read the value back. 129 call sites rewritten across src, tests,
benches, examples and the README. The dated plan and spec documents under
docs/superpowers are left alone: they record what was built at the time,
and rewriting them would falsify that.
tests/constructor_validation.rs is the more valuable half. This defect
class was closed three times in one session and reopened twice, because
each fix validated the layer it had just touched and inferred the rest —
`HistoryBuilder`, then `Game`'s own entry points, then the constructors
beneath both. A per-site fix cannot notice the site nobody thought of, so
that file enumerates every public entry point taking a magnitude and
asserts each refuses negative and non-finite values.
It found an eleventh defect on its first run: `HistoryBuilder::score_sigma`
accepted infinity, because `inf > 0.0` is true and the assert only tested
positivity. Fixed, and its own `should_panic` message updated to match.
`Gaussian::from_ms` is deliberately exempt from the non-finite half, for
the reason above: a broken fit produces a NaN sigma legitimately and
`converge` must be allowed to report it.
The convergence-level drift-variance check stays and is now tested through
a custom `Drift` implementation, since `ConstantDrift` can no longer reach
it. That check is the only thing standing between a third-party `Drift`
and a NaN fit.
BREAKING CHANGE: `ConstantDrift`'s field is private. Replace
`ConstantDrift(x)` with `ConstantDrift::new(x)`, and `drift().0` with
`drift().gamma()`. `HistoryBuilder::score_sigma` now rejects infinity.
Closes#65
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_011hcFjNDmHXZF8URGLku5zZ
#48: every predict_* answers "who wins", and a consumer recording scores
never asks that. It wants the interval on the result, and having none it
hand-fitted a noise law whose fitted node weight came out at 0.0 — so
the quoted sigma was 5.83 whether the competitor had forty rounds or
none, against real residual spreads of 5.8 and 12.44.
`predict_margin` composes the three things that make a scored result
uncertain: the joint posterior over the competitors, their per-event
performance noise, and the observation noise on the score. It widens as
the model knows less — measured, sigma 2.48 against an opponent with
forty rounds, 3.38 against one seen once, wider still against one never
seen — which is the property the hand-fitted law lost.
It is a margin, not a score, and that is not a shortcut. Scored
ingestion reduces every event to `score_a - score_b` before inference,
so the absolute level is discarded: shifting every score in a history by
+100 or -1000 produces a bit-identical fit, verified. There is no
information from which to predict what a competitor will *score*.
Returning one would be a number derived entirely from the prior, which
is exactly the plausible constant this crate keeps finding and removing.
`posterior_of` now honours `UnknownKeys::Prior`, which gives #48 its
second requirement — "I have never seen this competitor, here is the
prior-informed answer". An unseen competitor shares no event with the
slice, so it is independent by construction and its variance is additive
rather than part of the solve.
Worth recording for expectations: for a *margin* the joint buys little
over adding marginals (2.4798 against 2.5112 here), because a margin is
a difference and differences are where the loopy underestimate and the
ignored correlation cancel. The gain here is having a predictive
distribution at all. `posterior_of`'s correlation handling earns its
keep on sums and single nodes instead — see tests/additive_model.rs.
Closes#48
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_011hcFjNDmHXZF8URGLku5zZ
logaritmiskandClaude Opus 5