I incorporated a learning feature that enables Wyllie to learn from its losses, and over time this has strengthened the play of the program considerably. The same learning facility continues to add further knowledge to Wyllie today. One big advantage I had was the ability to continually test the program against strong opposition over the internet, and without this possibility I am sure Wyllie would not be as strong as it is. Well from a programming point of view all of it was hard, but then nothing worthwhile is ever easy. With a large program I think the hardest thing has to be the debugging, which invariably takes longer than the writing.
Some bugs can be very subtle and hard to detect.
That is where lots and lots of testing is essential. No large program is ever bug free at the start, and even when a bug becomes apparent, finding what in the code is causing it can be very difficult. It took about a year to get the first release version ready, but I have never stopped working on it - it is the sort of project that always has potential for further improvement. About 3 years now. When I first started going to VOG Wyllie was not allowed in any of the tournaments.