Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari!aplcen!uunet!mcsun!unido!uklirb!shell From: punch@cpswh.cps.msu.edu (Dr William Punch) Newsgroups: comp.ai.shells Subject: Some public domain GA software found Message-ID: <2553@uklirb.informatik.uni-kl.de> Date: 19 Feb 90 16:36:56 GMT Sender: shell@uklirb.informatik.uni-kl.de Reply-To: punch@cpswh.cps.msu.edu (Dr William Punch) Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, Michigan State University Lines: 123 Approved: shell@uklirb.uucp Posted-Date: Fri Feb 23 11:09:09 GMT 1990 Through talking to a number of people (thanks to everyone who responded) I have two sources of public domain GA/Classifier software. Below are descriptions of both and the addresses of the authors. Thanks again all. >>>bill<<< punch@cpswh.cps.msu.edu -------- Number 1 John Grefenstette: gref@aic.nrl.navy.mil, additions by schraudo%cs@ucsd.edu (Nici Schraudolph). Our research group here at UCSD has found John J. Grefenstette's GENESIS genetic algorithm simulator an invaluable tool for GA research, and the frequency with which we use it in different contexts has motivated us to put some effort into advancing the GENESIS source code itself. Starting from GENESIS 4.5 I have therefore developed three new versions of GENESIS over this summer. The first two of these (which fix a number of 4.5 bugs and improve the user interface, respectively) have been sent to John, who has kindly agreed to organize their distribution and integration into mainstream GENESIS. The third version includes more idiosyncratic improvements and facilities, and is available as "GENESIS 1.0ucsd" from us via anonymous ftp. Among a host of minor improvements 1.0ucsd offers the following new features: * simulations can be killed and restarted at will; * the setup program dynamically suggests default values for parameters; * additional termination criteria (Bias and Conv thresholds) are available; * evaluation functions may operate directly on the packed gene for speed; * almost any scalar C function can be used directly as evaluation function; * simulation queues may be executed in parallel on a network of hosts. Copies of the source code can be obtained as follows: $ mkdir GAucsd $ cd GAucsd $ ftp sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU Login: anonymous Password: ftp> cd pub/GA ftp> mget GENESIS.?.Z ftp> quit $ uncompress *.Z $ GENESIS.1 $ GENESIS.2 $ GENESIS.3 $ GENESIS.4 $ lpr UsersGuide $ view README WARNING: this is effectively a beta test version, and I can and will not give any guarantee of correctness. I will maintain a list of users for distributing bug fixes, updates, and new versions. To get added to that list, report bugs, or make suggestions send mail to nschraudolph@UCSD.EDU. GENESIS 1.0ucsd is an important tool for GA research in our group, and we expect it to continue evolving. For the near future we are planning the addition of ARGOT-style operation and fine-grain parallelism (using RPC to distribute evaluations). -------- Number 2 Rick Riolo: rick_riolo@um.cc.umich.edu The CFS-C classifier system is a collection of domain independent subroutines that implement the "major cycle" of a classifier system (message matching, bidding and competition, message posting, and bucket brigade re-allocation of strength). The package also includes some classifier "discovery" routines (including some "genetic" operators and a rule coupling operator). I also distribute some subroutines that implement two example task domains: LETSEQ, a letter prediction task, and FSW1, a finite state world traversal task. These can be linked to the CFS-C routines to produce runnable system, and they can serve as an example for writing your own task domain dependent subroutines. The source is 99% machine/compiler independent, and has been compiled on PC/ATs, Apollo's, SUNs, Vaxes, IBM 3090's, and Macs. (Of course that means the displays that come with the code are not graphics oriented, so you would want to write your own displays, most likely, to fit your machines, task, and interestes.) The code is written in C, and on 80x86 style machines has been compiled using Microsoft C (4.0 or 5.0) and CI86. There are two documents that describe the original CFS-C and LETSEQ systems, and a draft that describes the FSW1 domain. Unfortunately the two "official" documents are a bit out of date, but the distribution includes a NEW.TXT file which describes changes to the system since the documents were written. The documents do give an accurate overall view of the system--just some of the details are out of date (and those are noted in NEW.TXT). The easiest way for me to distribute it is on a 1.2MByte, 5.25in disk for ms-dos. Can you read that? If you need another distribution method, let me know and I'll see what can be arranged (eg mac 800KByte disks are easy, too). I would appreciate a $8 ($20 out of NAmer) "contribution" to cover media/mailing costs. Please send it to: Rick Riolo 905 Miller Ave. Ann Arbor MI 48103 (If you need a tape or something the cost would be more, and if its international mail, its more.) And of course please send me your Physical-Mail address. If you have any problems putting the code up, let me know. And please let me know of any bugs you find. Finally, I would appreciate hearing what applications or research projects for which you plan to use the classifier system, just so I can learn what people are doing. And of course I would like to hear of any results you get (good or bad) or lessons about classifier systems you learn. Thanks.