Performant and Easy to Use Non-GPLed Genetic Programming Library

Question

I would like to build an application that uses Genetic Programming to figure out what exactly the user is asking. It's a programming application for non-programmers. Basically the user feeds the application a bunch of examples, and from the examples the application will derive the rules required to build a new program for the user's own use/distribution.

I've built prototypes using linear regression but it could only solve simple problems. This week I experimented genetic programming using pyevolve and it worked much more brilliantly than I expected! However, I suspect it being written in pure python made it require dozens of seconds to solve an example, whereas in my application I only have at most a couple of seconds time.

I've been trying to find a more performant library that was as easy to use as pyevolve but cannot find a suitable one. I tried openBeagle but after getting an example running, and hours of poring through the documentation later, I still cannot find a way to actually pick an individual out of the "Vivarium". I've seen people recommend GAUL but that is a GPL library and will limit how I can license my future application. I've tried to download lil-gp but the ftp download links are locked by a university's login screen.

Since the application will be a Mac OS X cocoa application, I did not consider Java, C# or Matlab GP libraries.

Answer 1

As a developer of Open BEAGLE I still recommend you to use that library if you seek a fast GP library. Retrieving your best individual would actually be done by running a second program that parses the XML file that is logged at the end of the evolution. Otherwise, you can access it through the Vivarium.getHallOfFame() method and then sort it and access the first element with the HallOfFame.operator[]. The Member you'll get is a struct of the individual with the generation it was recorded and in what deme it was.

That way you can get access to the best individual that ever lived in your evolution.

If you have specific questions on Open BEAGLE I recommend you to ask them directly to the developer list, we usually answer very quickly.

Although, if you wish to try a very different library in Python I recommend you DEAP that allows a lot more flexibility than Pyevolve. Some GP examples run much faster under PyPy than Python.

Answer 2

If you ask the key developer of the GAUL project for permission to use an alternative license agreement, then he^* is quite likely to agree.

^*"he" is me.