From: joke@ls11.informatik.uni-dortmund.de (Joerg Heitkoetter) Originator: joke@ls11.informatik.uni-dortmund.de (Joerg Heitkoetter) Newsgroups: comp.ai.genetic Subject: What's new in the FAQ? (A Guide to "the Guide") Followup-To: comp.ai.genetic Date: Summary: This monthly addendum summarizes the changes made to the FAQ of the previous month; and also gives some pointers to future topics. Last-Modified: December 24, 1993 Issue: 1.10 "So Watch The Old World Melt Away And Loss Regrets Could Never Mend You Never Miss It Till It's Gone So Say Goodbye, Say Goodbye" -- Steve Hogarth, "Seasons End" G'day & G'bye folks! This is the final issue of the FAQ in 1994, and the final one that's edited by me. The FAQ contents has been tremendously stable over the last months, and thus, the posting period will be reduced to 4 times per year. However, the show must go on, so David Beasley will continue and edit the next issue; I'll try to support him to make the transition as smooth as possible. *You should expect issue 2.1 to come out on May 20th, 1994!* This December issue will also serve as the blue-print that gets published by CRC Press, in Lance Chamber's "The Application Handbook of Genetic Algorithms." My final weekend project and "new year's gift" to the EC community, i.e., the "low-end" (student part) of it, has just opened its doors. Enter SAFIER, the SAnta Fe Institute's Evolutionary computation Repository via sfi.santafe.edu:/pub/EC, and get (1) the CONTENTS file, or even better: (2) "The Navigator's Handbook to SAFIER", available as: sfi.santafe.edu:/pub/EC/handbook/safier.ps.gz (A4 paper) sfi.santafe.edu:/pub/EC/handbook/safier-US.ps.gz (US letter size) Please note that this is a *draft*, although some 35 pages long. Another project is also avail. from SAFIER at present: Howard Gutowitz' Cellular Automata FAQ, that I helped to bootstrap. It's under: sfi.santafe.edu:/pub/EC/CA/FAQ/ but this is subject to change during the next months. And finally: "Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet" edition 1.04 is out; get it from the European or US default locations: ftp.germany.eu.net:/pub/books/big-dummys-guide/big-dummys-guide-texi/ ftp.eff.org:/pub/Net_info/Big_Dummy/big-dummys-guide-texi/ That's all folks! Bye, bye -joke * HOW TO GET THE FAQ, WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS? The PostScript version on "lumpi.informatik.uni-dortmund.de" is available as "/pub/EA/docs/hhgtec-1.10.ps.gz"; or given you're in the US from SAFIER, the SAnta Fe Institute's Evolutionary computation Repository, try "ftp.santafe.edu" and fetch "/pub/EC/FAQ/hhgtec-1.10.gs.gz". This FAQ has become really a "bozo thingie", and thus will probably not fit through all News spool gateways; a major re-organisation and breakdown into smaller pieces is scheduled for '94; when time allows. (It then will probably feature 6, instead of the current 3 parts.) Anyway, if you don't see the 3 parts poping up at your site, order them via e-mail request to , from part2 of the FAQ: [..] Here is an example of how to send for a document on the archive at rtfm.mit.edu. This example will return a list of all the FAQs stored in the directory pub/usenet/news.answers/, and a copy of this guide. Send the message: send usenet/news.answers/index send usenet/news.answers/ai-faq/genetic/part1 send usenet/news.answers/ai-faq/genetic/part2 send usenet/news.answers/ai-faq/genetic/part3 quit [..] Or consider browsing the PostScript version. CORRECTIONS * typos ADDITIONS * What's a Clssifier System? (cf A1.4) * How do I get the copy of a dissertation? (cf A10.11) * How do I get IlliGAL reports via FTP? (cf A14) * pointer to SAFIER (cf PREFACE, A20) * pointer to PeGAsuS (cf A20) UPDATES * the Alife III proceedings are out (cf A12) DELETIONS * none MISCELLANEOUS * credits have been updated, as usual (cf ACKS) FUTURE ISSUES (more volunteers?) * Where do I get test problems for my EA? (NETLIB, SoftLib, ORlib) [..] * What about the mathematical background of EA paradigms? [..] * What about PhD programs in EC? [..] * Do we need mutation AND crossover? (cf Spears in FOGA2, 221-237) [..] * An easy way to understand the schema theorem? (cf A99: ZEN NAVIGATION) [..] * Do we need "closer to nature" models in EC? (Alife vs EC?) [..] * Any problems with random number generators? [..] * The following terms yet need a definition for the Glossary: 1/5 SUCCESS RULE, ADAPTATION, ADAPTIVE SEARCH, AGENTS, BENCHMARK PROGRAMS, BLACK MAGIC, CELL CYCLE, CHANCE, CHARLES DARWIN, COMMA STRATEGY, CONVERGENCE VELOCITY, EVOLUTION STRATEGY, EXPECTANCY VALUE, FORGETTING, GAUSSIAN DISTRIBUTION (GD), GLOBAL OPTIMIZATION, HARD SELECTION, INTERNAL MODEL, INTUITION, LEARNING, LOG-NORMALLY DISTRIBUTED, MACHINE LEARNING, NORMALLY DISTRIBUTED, OBJECT VARIABLES, PHENOTYPE, PLUS STRATEGY, PROBABILITY THEORY, PROBLEM DOMAIN KNOWLEDGE, REQUISITE VARIETY, SELF-ADAPTATION, SIMULATION, SOFT SELECTION, STANDARD DEVIATION, STATISTICS, STEPSIZES, STRATEGY VARIABLES, UNCERTAIN, UNIX, VECTOR OPTIMIZATION THANKS To all those too numerous to mention here, esp. those who droppe a "Thanks for all the Fish!" message; I know I am not alone. "And all our yesterdays have lighted fools; the way to dusty death; out, out brief candle; life's but a walking shadow; a poor player; that struts and gets his hour upon the stage; and then is heared no more; it is a tale; told by an idiot, full of sound an fury, signifying nothing." --- Shakespeare, Macbeth --- GNU mirror sites ---------------------------------------------------- The GNU project (un-)compression program gzip(1)/gunzip(1) is available from various sites around the globe, e.g.: ASIA: ftp.cs.titech.ac.jp, utsun.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp:/ftpsync/prep, cair.kaist.ac.kr:/pub/gnu AUSTRALIA: archie.au:/gnu (archie.oz or archie.oz.au for ACSnet) AFRICA: ftp.sun.ac.za:/pub/gnu MIDDLE-EAST: ftp.technion.ac.il:/pub/unsupported/gnu EUROPE: irisa.irisa.fr:/pub/gnu, ftp.univ-lyon1.fr:pub/gnu, ftp.mcc.ac.uk, unix.hensa.ac.uk:/pub/uunet/systems/gnu, src.doc.ic.ac.uk:/gnu, ftp.win.tue.nl, ugle.unit.no, ftp.denet.dk, ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de:/pub/gnu, ftp.informatik.tu-muenchen.de, ftp.eunet.ch, nic.switch.ch:/mirror/gnu, nic.funet.fi:/pub/gnu, isy.liu.se, ftp.stacken.kth.se, ftp.luth.se:/pub/unix/gnu, archive.eu.net CANADA: ftp.cs.ubc.ca:/mirror2/gnu USA: wuarchive.wustl.edu:/mirrors/gnu, labrea.stanford.edu, ftp.kpc.com:/pub/mirror/gnu, ftp.cs.widener.edu, uxc.cso.uiuc.edu, col.hp.com:/mirrors/gnu, ftp.cs.columbia.edu:/archives/gnu/prep, gatekeeper.dec.com:/pub/GNU, ftp.uu.net:/systems/gnu