This chapter should give you some basic recommendations if you have decided to implement your genetic algorithm. These recommendations are very general. Probably you will want to experiment with your own GA for specific problem, because today there is no general theory which would describe parameters of GA for any problem. Recommendations are often results of some empiric studies of GAs, which were often performed only on binary encoding. On the other side, mutation rate should be very low.
Some research also shows, that best population size depends on encoding, on size of encoded string .
It means, if you have chromosome with 32 bits, the population should be say 32, but surely two times more than the best population size for chromosome with 16 bits. Selection Basic roulette wheel selection can be used, but sometimes rank selection can be better. Check chapter about selection for advantages and disadvantages. Basically they behaves like simulated annealing. You can also try steady state selection.