GAUL: The Genetic Algorithm Utility Library =========================================== Copyright © 2000-2006 "Stewart A. Adcock" <stewart@linux-domain.com> All rights reserved. This is the "gaul-devel" package, which currently provides the developmental version of GAUL. Further Information ------------------- Homepage: http://gaul.souceforge.net/ Documentation: http://gaul.souceforge.net/documentation.html Development homepage: http://souceforge.net/projects/gaul/ All existing documentation, including a reference guide, on-line tutorial and a FAQ, is available at the website. Note that reference documentation is still being written. In the mean-time you are welcome to join the mailing list, gaul-devel@lists.sourceforge.net, where all of your questions can be answered. Introduction to GAUL -------------------- The Genetic Algorithm Utility Library (or, GAUL for short) is a flexible programming library designed to aid in the development of applications that require the use of genetic algorithms. It provides data structures and functions for handling and manipulation of the data required for a genetic algorithm. Additional stochastic algorithms are provided for comparison to the genetic algorithms. Much of the functionality is also available through a simple S-Lang interface. GAUL is OSI Certified Open Source Software. Current features include: * Darwinian, Lamarckian or Baldwinian evolutionary schemes. * Both steady-state and generation-based GAs included. * The island model of evolution is available. * Chromosome datatype agnostic. A selection of common chromosome types is built-in. * Includes most of the usual crossover, mutation and selection operators. * Allows user-defined GA operators, icluding: o crossover, mutation, selection, adaptation, replacement. * Availability of multiple chromosome genomes. * Full support for multiple, simultaneously evolved, populations. * Choice of high-level or low-level interface functions. * Additional optimisation algorithms for local optimisation or comparative purposes: o Hill climbing. o Tabu Search. o Simulated annealling. o Simplex Search. o Steepest Ascents. o Deterministic Crowding. * Trivial to extend using external code via the built-in code hooks. * May be driven by, or extended by, simple yet powerful S-Lang scripts. * Support for multiprocessor calculations on various architectures: o MPI o OpenMP 2.0 o pthreads o forked-process model * Written using highly portable C code. The current primary aims for the GAUL development project are to produce documentation, examples and test cases for this open-source release of GAUL. Several new features are also planned for GAUL including wrappers to enable its use with programming languages other than C. The main development platform for GAUL is Linux with the gcc compiler, but it should be fairly trivial to use GAUL on any POSIX compliant systems. Recent versions of GAUL have been successfully used a variety of operating systems, including RedHat Linux, FreeBSD, Sun's Solaris and SGI's IRIX. Full use is made of the GNU maketools to aid portability issues. A table of fully compatible platforms is located at http://gaul.souceforge.net/platforms.html This version of GAUL is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License. See the file ./COPYING for full details. Installation ------------ See file ./INSTALL Bug Submission -------------- If you find a bug, please send details of your system, the version of GAUL that you are using and concise instructions for reproducing the crash to gaul@linux-domain.com. The GAUL 'Button' ----------------- If you use GAUL in your application, please consider adding the miniature GAUL logo to your web page: <a href="http://gaul.sourceforge.net/"> <IMG src="gaul_button.png" width="88" height="31" border="0" alt="GAUL Button"> </a> The 'gaul_button.png' graphic may be downloaded from the GAUL web page. Stewart Adcock, 17 Jun 2004.