The midterm is Tuesday, October 14

You are responsible for the following for the midterm:

1.  Lectures, handouts, and lisp code on the web page
    through the material covered Tues, Oct 7

2.  Text:

      Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4 (but not material on
        SMA* or simulated annealing)

      Also, Chapters 6 and 7 to the extent covered in lectures as of
      Oct 7 (resolution and unification will not be covered on the exam)

Notes:

      The midterm is a closed-book exam

      If there is anything on Lisp on the exam, it will be
      related to the lisp programs/functions discussed in
      class (generate.lisp and treeSearch*).
      You will not have to memorize the 
      functions or reproduce them from memory, but you
      should understand them.

      For the search algorithms, you won't have to reproduce
      code, but you do need to know their behaviour.  Be
      sure that you know such things as what the heuristic 
      evaluation function is and why it is used, what are
      the essential differences among the search algorithms.

      A* will definitely be covered on the exam.
      Know not only how A* works, but BE SURE to know the
      material presented IN LECTURE about when A* is
      guaranteed to find an optimal path to a goal
      (admissibility) and, given A* applied to the
      same problem with two different heuristics (h1 and 
      h2), if A* is guaranteed to find an optimal
      path to a goal with either h1 and h2, then when is 
      it true that A*
      is guaranteed to search less of the state space with
      h1 than with h2?  (i.e., what does it mean to say
      that h1 is "more informed" than h2?)

      Other search algorithms that may be on the exam
      (at least a subset will be):

      exhaustive search 
         breadth-first-search
         depth-first-search
         iterative deepening
         iterative widening

      heuristic search
         best-first-search
         steepest-ascent hill climbing
         beam-search
         IDA*

      various comparisons were made among search algorithms
      IN LECTURE; you will be asked for comparisons among/
      between search algorithms on the exam.

      I suggest getting the following uses of "heuristic"
      straight in your mind:

      -- general distinction between heuristic and exhaustive
         search.

      -- h as the static heuristic evaluation function

      -- f = g + h as the heuristic used in A* (i.e.,
         states with lower f values, not necessarily lower h 
         values, are considered better).


      *  I look for answers THAT ANSWER THE QUESTION and
      *  that say things that are true.  No credit is
      *  given for stating true but irrelevant things.
      *  Please do not just do a "core dump" on the topic of
      *  the question.