Newsgroups: comp.ai.genetic,comp.ai.alife From: David.Beasley@cs.cf.ac.uk (David Beasley) Subject: Reminder - comp.ai.genetic Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Summary: Contents of, and how to get hold of the comp.ai.genetic FAQ Date: Mon, 25 Mar 1996 01:00:17 GMT Expires: Sat, 20 Apr 1996 01:00:11 GMT Organization: Cardiff University of Wales A message from the comp.ai.genetic FAQmaster. This message is for people who are (relatively) new to this newsgroup. There is a `Frequently Asked Questions list' (FAQ) for comp.ai.genetic, titled "The Hitch Hikers Guide To Evolutionary Computation". This contains a vast amount of information, primarily aimed at newcomers. The plain text version of guide is in six parts, and is posted to the net (comp.ai.genetic, comp.answers and news.answers) every three months. The last posting was on March 20th. The next posting is due on June 20th. If you'd like a copy, and can't wait that long, it can be retrieved from various archives in various ways. Details below. There is also now a new HTML version of the guide, available via the World Wide Web. This includes links between questions and links to glossary entries, among other things. Details below. If you have information which could usefully go into the guide, send it to me at the address below. Please include in the subject line: HHGTEC. All contributions/help welcome. If you have any questions which you'd like to be answered in the FAQ, post them to comp.ai.genetic first. If any sensible answers are forthcoming, I'll include the information in the FAQ. FAQ Table of Contents --------------------- Part1 Q0: How about an introduction to all this? - What is comp.ai.genetic all about? - How do I get started? What about USENET documentation? Part2 Q1: What are Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs)? Q1.1: What's a Genetic Algorithm (GA)? Q1.2: What's Evolutionary Programming (EP)? Q1.3: What's an Evolution Strategy (ES)? Q1.4: What's a Classifier System (CFS)? Q1.5: What's Genetic Programming (GP)? Part3 Q2: What applications of EAs are there? Q3: Who is concerned with EAs? Q4: How many EAs exist? Which? Q4.1: What about Alife systems, like Tierra and VENUS? Q5: What about all this Optimization stuff? Part4 Q10: What introductory material on EAs is there? Q10.1: Suitable background reading for beginners? Q10.2: Textbooks on EC? Q10.3: The Classics? Q10.4: Introductory Journal Articles? Q10.5: Introductory Technical Reports? Q10.6: Not-quite-so-introductory Literature? Q10.7: Biological Background Readings? Q10.8: On-line bibliography collections? Q10.9: Videos? Q10.10: CD-ROMs? Q10.11: How do I get a copy of a dissertation? Q11: What EC related journals and magazines are there? Q12: What are the important conferences/proceedings on EC? Q13: What Evolutionary Computation Associations exist? Q14: What Technical Reports are available? Q15: What information is available over the net? Q15.1: What digests are there? Q15.2: What mailing lists are there? Q15.3: What online information repositories are there? Q15.4: What relevant newsgroups and FAQs are there? Q15.5: What about all these Internet Services? Part5 Q20: What EA software packages are available? Q20.1: Free software packages? Q20.2: Commercial software packages? Q20.3: Current research projects? Part6 Q21: What are Gray codes, and why are they used? Q22: What test data is available? Q42: What is Life all about? Q42b: Is there a FAQ to this group? Q98: Are there any patents on EAs? Q99: A Glossary on EAs? How to get hold of the Guide ---------------------------- The guide is available in PostScript format (good for printing out, about 100 pages), and as plain text (6 files, each about 50k). A new HTML version is also accessible on the World-Wide Web. (i) World Wide Web HTML Version Available from Encore sites at: Europe: Germany: EUnet Deutschland GmbH: ftp://ftp.Germany.EU.net:/pub/research/softcomp/EC/FAQ/www/ Germany: Technical University of Berlin: ftp://ftp-bionik.fb10.tu-berlin.de:/pub/EC/FAQ/www/ France: Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau: ftp://blanche.polytechnique.fr:/pub/eark/EC/FAQ/www/ UK: The University of Warwick: ftp://ftp.dcs.warwick.ac.uk:/pub/mirrors/EC/FAQ/www/ Spain: The University of Oviedo: ftp://zeus.etsimo.uniovi.es:/pub/EC/FAQ/www/ USA: The Santa Fe Institute: ftp://alife.santafe.edu:/pub/USER-AREA/EC/FAQ/www/ The California Institute of Technology: ftp://ftp.krl.caltech.edu:/pub/EC/FAQ/www/ Wayne State University, Detroit: ftp://ftp.cs.wayne.edu:/pub/EC/FAQ/www/ The Michigan State University, East Lansing: ftp://ftp.egr.msu.edu:/pub/EC/FAQ/www/ Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN: ftp://coast.cs.purdue.edu:/pub/EC/FAQ/www/ Elsewhere: Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong: ftp://ftp.cs.cuhk.hk:/pub/EC/FAQ/www/ South Africa: University of Cape Town: ftp://ftp.uct.ac.za:/pub/mirrors/EC/FAQ/www/ Tom Fine at Ohio State University maintains a large archive of FAQs, many converted to HTML. In the past this has carried a version of the guide which has been converted to HTML from the plain text version (and so was fairly basic). The following address may carry this text-style HTML page, or a copy of the official HTML version: http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/ai-faq/genetic/top.html (ii) By anonymous FTP. USA: ftp alife.santafe.edu (ENCORE default node) cd /pub/USER-AREA/EC/FAQ binary get hhgtec.ps.gz (gzipped postscript) or mget part? (text version) or ftp ftp.krl.caltech.edu (ENCORE mirror site, CalTec) cd /pub/EC/FAQ other ENCORE mirror sites in the USA include: ftp.cs.wayne.edu cd /pub/EC Wayne State Uni, Detroit ASIA: ftp ftp.cs.cuhk.hk (ENCORE mirror site, Hong Kong) cd /pub/EC/FAQ EUROPE: ftp ftp.dcs.warwick.ac.uk (ENCORE mirror site, UK) cd /pub/mirrors/EC/FAQ or ftp ftp.Germany.EU.net (ENCORE mirror site - Germany) cd /pub/research/softcomp/EC/FAQ or ftp blanche.polytechnique.fr (ENCORE mirror site - France) cd /pub/eark/EC/FAQ or ftp zeus.etsimo.uniovi.es (ENCORE mirror site - Spain) cd /pub/EC/FAQ AFRICA: ftp ftp.uct.ac.za (ENCORE mirror site, South cd /pub/mirrors/EC/FAQ Africa) Elsewhere: ftp rtfm.mit.edu cd /pub/usenet/news.answers/ai-faq/genetic mget part? (text version) (iii) By email server If you dont have ftp access, you can retrieve the FAQ by email server (this will probably be slower than ftp). Simply email a message to: mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu containing the lines: send usenet/news.answers/ai-faq/genetic/part1 send usenet/news.answers/ai-faq/genetic/part2 send usenet/news.answers/ai-faq/genetic/part3 send usenet/news.answers/ai-faq/genetic/part4 send usenet/news.answers/ai-faq/genetic/part5 send usenet/news.answers/ai-faq/genetic/part6 quit (iv) By FTPmail Method (iii) can only retrieve files from the MIT FAQ archive. There also exists a general purpose FTP-by-email service. The "ftpmail" service is installed on several sites to allow transmission of FTPable files from almost anywhere. To get the PostScript version of the FAQ from Warwick, for example, send a message to: ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com containing the lines: reply connect ftp.dcs.warwick.ac.uk get pub/mirrors/EC/FAQ/hhgtec.ps.gz quit where is e.g. foo@bar.edu The following sites serve "ftpmail" requests: (USA) (Europe) (v) Retrieval problems If you cant get through to an ftp site, try again at other times of the day. If you still cant get through, consult your local System Admin person. The same applies to general questions about how to use ftp, email, newsreaders, etc: ask your local guru :-) Please *DONT* ask me to send copies of the FAQ by email. Also, please dont send me messages asking if the above information is correct ;-) (But do tell me if its wrong) Decompressing the gzipped postscript files. ------------------------------------------- The GNU project (un-)compression program gzip(1)/gunzip(1) is available from various sites around the globe (use BINARY mode for transfer!), e.g.: AFRICA: ftp.sun.ac.za:/pub/gnu ASIA: utsun.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp:/ftpsync/prep, cair.kaist.ac.kr:/pub/gnu, ftp.nectec.or.th:/pub/mirrors/gnu AUSTRALIA: archie.au:/gnu BRASIL: ftp.unicamp.br:/pub/gnu CANADA: ftp.cs.ubc.ca:/mirror2/gnu MIDDLE-EAST: ftp.technion.ac.il:/pub/unsupported/gnu EUROPE: irisa.irisa.fr:/pub/gnu, src.doc.ic.ac.uk:/gnu, ugle.unit.no, ftp.win.tue.nl:/pub/gnu, ftp.denet.dk, ftp.informatik.tu-muenchen.de, nic.switch.ch:/mirror/gnu, nic.funet.fi:/pub/gnu, ftp.luth.se:/pub/unix/gnu, archive.eu.net USA: gatekeeper.dec.com:/pub/GNU, wuarchive.wustl.edu:/mirrors/gnu, ftp.uu.net:/systems/gnu, prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu, ftp.hawaii.edu:/mirrors/gnu David Beasley, Praxis plc, Bath, UK __o dabley@praxis.co.uk \<, -comp.ai.genetic FAQ Editor- ___________________()/ ()___ --