`posterior_of` shipped in 0.5.0 reading a single slice. Measured against
a real Through-Time history that answers almost nothing: ustat's round
fit is 76 per-day slices whose last one holds a solo round, so 0 of 55
pair differences resolved and the single node that did was degenerate —
a one-competitor slice has no correlation to account for and returns the
marginal unchanged.
That was my mistake, and the fixture chose it. I validated against
single-slice histories, which is exactly the shape that cannot reveal
the problem. In a library whose premise is skill over time, competitors
are read at *their own* last appearance and those are different slices
by construction.
The joint is now time-expanded: one variable per appearance, linked by
the prior on a first appearance, the drift between consecutive ones, and
the within-slice event contrasts. Consecutive appearances with no drift
between them are the same variable rather than two joined by an infinite
precision, which keeps the matrix positive-definite when a competitor is
pinned with `drift_scale = 0`.
`posterior_of` now reads each competitor at their own latest appearance,
which is where `current_skill` reads them, so the two agree about which
posterior they describe. Adds `posterior_of_at(time, terms)` for a
comparison anchored to a moment, matching `learning_curve`'s reading.
Validated against a hand-written exact posterior for a two-competitor,
two-slice history — the precision matrix is spelled out in the test
rather than obtained from the crate, so it is an independent check
rather than a restatement. Also pinned: competitors last seen in
different slices now compare at all, means still agree with the
marginals, zero drift makes slice layout irrelevant, and more drift
widens a comparison across time.
BREAKING CHANGE: `posterior_of` and `expected_variance_reduction` now
consider the whole history rather than its latest slice, so results
change for any multi-slice history. `JointUnavailable` is now returned
when *any* slice holds ranked events, not just the last.
Refs #46, #47
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_011hcFjNDmHXZF8URGLku5zZ
logaritmiskandClaude Opus 5
f345e7690e