From: elsberry@beta.tricity.wsu.edu (Wesley Elsberry)
Newsgroups: talk.origins
Subject: Re: Evolution Simulation Software
Summary: Genetic Algorithms and A-life software
Keywords: genetic algorithm, software
Date: 16 Oct 92 18:34:44 GMT
Followup-To: talk.origins
Organization: Washington State University Tri-Cities, Richland

In article <1992Oct16.161228.13729@cbnewsh.cb.att.com> young@cbnewsh.cb.att.com (young.u.huh) writes:
>
>In his book, "The Blind Watchmaker", Richard Dawkins talks about
>his PC software for simulating evolution.  Using its outputs, he
>illustrates how large numbers of successive mutations can give 
>rise to different species.  The book contains a form to order the 
>software from the publisher for $10.95.  
>
>Has anyone tried this or other similar software?  
>I am wondering, since it has been about 6 years since the 
>publication of the book, if there are any newer, more powerful 
>software of this type.  If you know of such software and where I 
>could obtain a copy, please reply or post a followup.
>
>Thanks in advance for any information.
>
>Young Huh
>yhuh@ihlpe.att.com

There are a number of genetic algorithm demonstration programs
available, as well as GA tools.  Artificial life programs, like Tom
Ray's "Tierra", are also widely available.

One spot to find artificial neural network, GA, and AL programs is the
Central Neural System BBS at 509-627-6267.  Tierra, GAucsd, SGA, PSOUP,
DEVO, and BUGS, among others, are available on CNS.

There is a GA ftp site that you should probably check at 
ftp.aic.nrl.navy.mil.

The following text is a list from an article retrieved from the ftp site 
mentioned above.

 ** GAsoft.txt ****************************************



Updated version - 08/19/92.  Changes from earlier version:

* new software releases: GENEsYs, MicroGA (was GA Framework)
* additions: BUGS, PC/Beagle, XpertRule GenAsys, EnGENEer, Omega, Genie
* now available via ftp: GENOCOP/Genetic-2/Genetic-2N, Evolution Machine
* e-mail address change: Robert Elliott Smith <rob@comec4.mh.ua.edu>
* Artificial Life simulators (such as Tierra) are no longer covered

....................


Genetic Algorithm Software Survey - Overview
============================================

As part of the workshop on Software Support and Test Functions at the 4th
International Conference on Genetic Algorithms (ICGA) I began to solicit
and collect information about available GA software packages.  Having re-
ceived a surprising number of responses, I feel that the following is a
fairly comprehensive picture of what's out there at this time.  Additions
and corrections are of course welcome and may make it into future updates
of this file.

Many thanks to all the informants, including - but not limited to - the
authors/contacts listed below.  Special thanks to Jose Ribeiro Filho,
Cesare Alippi and Philip Treleaven, whose survey article "Genetic Algo-
rithm Programming Environments" (to appear) was an invaluable source of
information.  The descriptions of PC/Beagle, XpertRule GenAsys, Omega
and EnGENEer are adapted from that article with their kind permission.

                                               San Diego, 07/09/92
- Nici Schraudolph (nici@cs.ucsd.edu).


### PLEASE NOTE: ##########################################################
#                                                                         #
#   For many of these software packages, specific ordering instructions   #
#   are given in the descriptions below.  Please read and follow them     #
#   before unnecessarily bothering the listed author or contact!  Also    #
#   note that I haven't tested any of these programs (with the exception  #
#   the one I administer), so I can't give any comments or recommenda-    #
#   tions regarding their quality.                                        #
#                                                                         #
###########################################################################


Legend:
------

Type - (this is a very ad-hoc classification)
       GE: generational GA, SS: steady-state GA
       ES: evol. strategy,  OO: object-oriented
       XP: expert system,   ED: educational/demo

OS - Operating System; X11 implies Unix

Lang - Programming Language; in parentheses: source code not included

Price - (*): free to government contractors, others pay nominal fee

Author or Contact - given as Internet e-mail address if possible

 Name    Type  OS Lang  Price  Author or Contact
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
GA        GE, DOS (C++)  free  mrh@camcon.co.uk (Mark Hughes)
Workbench ED
              X11,
Splicer   GE   Mac  C     (*)  bayer@galileo.jsc.nasa.gov (Steve Bayer)

Evolution GE, DOS   C    free  born@max.fb10.tu-berlin.de (Joachim Born)
Machine   ES
                  Think
Genie     GE  Mac Pascal free  P_Stampoul@fennel.cc.uwa.au.oz (Lance Chambers)

GAGA      GE  Unix  C    free  jon@cs.ucl.ac.uk (Jon Crowcroft)

ESCaPaDE  ES  Unix  C    free  iwan@gorbi.informatik.uni-dortmund.de
                               (Frank Hoffmeister)

GAucsd    GE  Unix  C    free  nici@cs.ucsd.edu (Nici Schraudolph)

Genitor   SS  Unix  C    free  whitley@cs.colostate.edu (Darrell Whitley)

GAC       GE  Unix  C    free  spears@aic.nrl.navy.mil (Bill Spears)
GAL        "     Lisp     "             "

mGA1.0    GE     Lisp    free
SGA-C      "  Unix  C     "    rob@comec4.mh.ua.edu (Robert Elliott Smith)
SGA-Cube   "  nCube "     "

GENOCOP,  GE  Unix  C    free  zbyszek@unccvax.uncc.edu (Zbigniew Michalewicz)
Genetic-2, Genetic-2N

WOLF      SS  Mac,  C    $20/  drogers@riacs.edu (David Rogers)
              Unix       free

BUGS      GE, X11,  C    free  jrs@cs.williams.edu (Joshua Smith)
          ED  Suntools

OOGA      OO     Lisp    $60/  (Lawrence Davis)
GENESIS   GE  DOS   C    both  gref@aic.nrl.navy.mil (John Grefenstette)

GENEsYs   GE  Unix  C    free  baeck@gorbi.informatik.uni-dortmund.de
                               (Thomas Baeck)
_C_o_m_m_e_r_c_i_a_l_ _P_a_c_k_a_g_e_s:

EnGENEer  OO  X11   C      ?   (George Robbins, Logica Cambridge Ltd.)

Evolver   GE  DOS, (C,   $345  (Phil Rybeck, Axcelis Inc.)
              Mac   Pascal)
XpertRule
GenAsys   XP  DOS          ?   (Attar Software)

PC/Beagle XP  DOS          ?   (Richard Forsyth, Pathway Research Ltd.)

Omega      ?  DOS          ?   (David Barrow, KiQ Limited)

MicroGA   OO  Mac  C++   $249  sdwilson@aol.com (Steve Wilson) 

_U_n_d_e_r_ _D_e_v_e_l_o_p_m_e_n_t:

GAME      OO  X11  C++         J.RibeiroFilho@cs.ucl.ac.uk (Jose Ribeiro Filho)

XYpe      SS  Mac  (C)   $725  (Ed Swartz, Virtual Image Inc.)

[Descriptions omitted for brevity]


[End]