Generator

parameter-rules

One function in the regular library, called 3 times across 1 essay. Below: what it draws at its defaults, what it draws at every value an essay asks for, the 5 claims it put to the test while drawing them, and where it stands against the rule this site is named for.

At its defaults it draws the l-curve, and where four rules put λ. The norm of the solution against the norm of its residual, on logarithmic axes, as λ sweeps eight decades. The curve has a corner: to the left of it the noise is being amplified and to the right the signal is being thrown away. Four points are marked — the three rules that use only the data, and the oracle, which requires the exact answer and is not a method.

parameter-rules is one function in lib/figures/regular.js — regularisation — the filter, the corner, and the answer that is a choice. Everything below came out of it during this build, at arguments taken from the essays rather than invented for this page. A figure here is the figure a reader meets in an essay, and if the generator changes, this page changes with it.

At its defaults

Drawn even though every essay passes arguments — which on this site is every essay, at 100% of placements since the standard pass. A default nothing exercises is a trap for the next essay to call this with none, and this is the page where a default that has drifted from the figures around it becomes visible.

The L-curve, and where four rules put λThe norm of the solution against the norm of its residual, on logarithmic axes, as λ sweeps eight decades. The curve has a corner: to the left of it the noise is being amplified and to the right the signal is being thrown away. Four points are marked — the three rules that use only the data, and the oracle, which requires the exact answer and is not a method.10⁻²10⁻¹110¹10²10³10⁴‖Ax − b‖‖x‖the oraclediscrepancyL-curvegeneralisedscored against a truth none hasoracle, relative error0.11discrepancy principle, as a multiple1.1L-curve corner, as a multiple2.3generalised cross-validation, as a multiple1the oracle needs the exact answer and is not a methodit is the reference the others are scored on

The norm of the solution against the norm of its residual, on logarithmic axes, as λ sweeps eight decades. The curve has a corner: to the left of it the noise is being amplified and to the right the signal is being thrown away. Four points are marked — the three rules that use only the data, and the oracle, which requires the exact answer and is not a method.

noise: 0.001

The arguments are the ones Choosing without knowing passes. A value drawn at the generator's defaults instead would be a picture no essay asked for and no assertion has been run against.

The L-curve, and where four rules put λThe norm of the solution against the norm of its residual, on logarithmic axes, as λ sweeps eight decades. The curve has a corner: to the left of it the noise is being amplified and to the right the signal is being thrown away. Four points are marked — the three rules that use only the data, and the oracle, which requires the exact answer and is not a method.10⁻²10⁻¹110¹10²10³10⁴‖Ax − b‖‖x‖the oraclediscrepancyL-curvegeneralisedscored against a truth none hasoracle, relative error0.11discrepancy principle, as a multiple1.1L-curve corner, as a multiple2.3generalised cross-validation, as a multiple1the oracle needs the exact answer and is not a methodit is the reference the others are scored on

The norm of the solution against the norm of its residual, on logarithmic axes, as λ sweeps eight decades. The curve has a corner: to the left of it the noise is being amplified and to the right the signal is being thrown away. Four points are marked — the three rules that use only the data, and the oracle, which requires the exact answer and is not a method.

noise: 0.01

The arguments are the ones Choosing without knowing passes. A value drawn at the generator's defaults instead would be a picture no essay asked for and no assertion has been run against.

The L-curve, and where four rules put λThe norm of the solution against the norm of its residual, on logarithmic axes, as λ sweeps eight decades. The curve has a corner: to the left of it the noise is being amplified and to the right the signal is being thrown away. Four points are marked — the three rules that use only the data, and the oracle, which requires the exact answer and is not a method.10⁻¹110¹10²10³10⁴10⁵‖Ax − b‖‖x‖the oraclediscrepancyL-curvegeneralisedscored against a truth none hasoracle, relative error0.14discrepancy principle, as a multiple1L-curve corner, as a multiple1.3generalised cross-validation, as a multiple1the oracle needs the exact answer and is not a methodit is the reference the others are scored on

The norm of the solution against the norm of its residual, on logarithmic axes, as λ sweeps eight decades. The curve has a corner: to the left of it the noise is being amplified and to the right the signal is being thrown away. Four points are marked — the three rules that use only the data, and the oracle, which requires the exact answer and is not a method.

What it checked while drawing

Every figure above asserted its own claims on the way to being drawn, and a claim that failed would have failed the build rather than drawn a wrong picture. Those assertions used to leave no trace at all: a passing one returned true and the only evidence the figure had checked anything was that nothing crashed. The list below is what they actually said, collected by running this generator with an observer installed — not a description of what it is believed to check.

5 distinct claims across 3 sets of arguments, grouped below by shape — because most of them are one sentence with a different number in it, and how many separate times that sentence was put to the test is the informative part.

a noise level small enough to be noise

and at least one pays a real price for not knowing the answer

discrepancy principle does not beat the oracle

generalised cross-validation does not beat the oracle

L-curve corner does not beat the oracle

Against the rule

The rule does not apply to it. It factorises nothing, so there is no residual it could be withholding. That is worth stating rather than leaving blank: a site that reported the rule as satisfied by every generator would be counting mostly generators the rule never reached.

Across the library: the rule bites on 52 of 99 generators — 37 print a residual and 15 are exempt with a published reason; 47 factorise nothing. Read from lib/residual-rule.js, which is the same body the gate enforces from, and the gate's last check fails the build if this page and it disagree about any generator.

Where it is called

Changing this generator changes every figure on this list. That is what makes the list worth publishing rather than keeping in a check script.

The whole library · All essays · What must fail