  Eleven density functionals are compared with regard to their performance for
the lattice constants of solids. We consider standard functionals, such as the
local-density approximation and the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE)
generalized-gradient approximation (GGA), as well as variations of PBE GGA,
such as PBEsol and similar functionals, PBE-type functionals employing a
tighter Lieb-Oxford bound, and combinations thereof. Several of these
variations are proposed here for the first time. On a test set of 60 solids we
perform a system-by-system analysis for selected functionals and a full
statistical analysis for all of them. The impact of restoring the gradient
expansion and of tightening the Lieb-Oxford bound is discussed, and confronted
with previous results obtained from other codes, functionals or test sets. No
functional is uniformly good for all investigated systems, but surprisingly,
and pleasingly, the simplest possible modifications to PBE turn out to have the
most beneficial effect on its performance. The atomization energy of molecules
was also considered and on a testing set of six molecules, we found that the
PBE functional is clearly the best, the others leading to strong overbinding.
