🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1136@kepler1.rentec.com>, andrew@rentec.com (Andrew Mullhaupt) writes:
> [stuff deleted in a discussion on SA vs GA] 
>
> So what's the difference? The difference is which one is more convenient for
> your purposes, that is, which one is easier to think of for your problem.
>
> [more stuff deleted]

This is probably the best comment I've seen so far on any of this stuff.  It tends to
apply to almost any such debate (like Fortran vs C, etc, etc, etc...)

There is one comment that I have seen throughout this thread, however, that is
completely false (not by the above writer, but by some others I have seen responding).
I keep seeing the statement that GAs are nice toys, but there are very few practical
applications.  This couldn't be further from the truth.  Let me list a *sampling* of the
successful applications in the area.

Bin packing
Job shop scheduling
Vehicle routing with time windows
Gas pipeline optimization
VLSI circuit layout
VLSI layout compaction
Keyboard configuration
Aircraft landing strut weight optimization
Communications network link size optimization
Classroom scheduling (via SA with metalevel GA - hybrid of the two techniques)
Recursive adaptive filter design
Traveling salesman problem
Selection of detectors for binary pattern recognition
Image registration
Nonlinear equation solving
Constrained optimization problems (linear programming, etc)
Prisoner's dilemma
Database query optimization
Clustering
Criminal identification (face matching)
Pattern recognition
Music composition
Partitioning problems
Adaptive fuzzy logic controller design
Task allocation in multicomputers
Process control
1-D fractal inverse problem
Resource scheduling
Fuzzy logic synthesis
Context free grammar induction
Various NP problems (SAT, Hamiltonian circuit problem, n-queens, etc)
Chemometrics
Parametric design of aircraft
Configuration of stack filters
Steiner tree optimization
(apologies if I have duplicated anything in this list...I did it rather quickly)

I could go on.  This list was compiled in a few minutes by browsing Goldberg ("Genetic
Algorithms in Search, Optimization & Machine Learning", Addison-Wesley, 1989) and
the proceedings of the 3rd and 4th International Conference on Genetic Algorithms.
While not *everything* in the above list would fall under *practical*, most would.
The literature bears clear witness that GAs fall well within the bounds of practicality.
I can provide more detailed references if anyone is interested in a particular topic.

Kelly
-- 
Kelly D. Crawford             | Amoco Production Research | These are my own
kcrawford@trc.amoco.com       | 4502 East 41st Street     | opinions, not
phone: (918) 660-4043         | Tulsa, OK  74102          | Amoco's...
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