BUGS:

BUGS (Better to Use Genetic Systems) is an interactive program for demonstrating the GENETIC ALGORITHM and is written in the spirit of Richard Dawkins' celebrated Blind Watchmaker software. The user can play god (or `GA FITNESS function,' more accurately) and try to evolve lifelike organisms (curves). Playing with BUGS is an easy way to get an understanding of how and why the GA works. In addition to demonstrating the basic GENETIC OPERATORs (SELECTION, CROSSOVER, and MUTATION), it allows users to easily see and understand phenomena such as GENETIC DRIFT and premature convergence. BUGS is written in C and runs under Suntools and X Windows.

BUGS was written by Joshua Smith <jrs@media.mit.edu> at Williams College and is available from ftp://www.aic.nrl.navy.mil/pub/galist/src/BUGS.tar.Z Note that it is unsupported software, copyrighted but freely distributable. Address: Room E15-492, MIT Media Lab, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge, MA 02139. (Unverified 8/94).