Difference between SteadyStateEvolutionEngine and GenerationalEvolutionEngine

[Vikas Agrawal]

If somebody can please explain the difference between the two by giving a simple hypothetical example, I would really appreciate it. I read the API but to tell the truth the API isn't providing detailed explanation that I can understand. The question that keep bothering me is which one to use under which circumstances. Does it really matter which one to use or it just depends upon user preferences which one to use?

[Daniel Dyer]

You can probably try both and see which works best for you. It may be
that one is better than the other for certain projects. I haven't really
evaluated which one performs best for particular problems but it seems
there are a number of papers that compare the two approaches.

The steady-state algorithm only changes one or two members of the
population at a time whereas the generational version potentially replaces
the entire population (or most of it if you are using elitism).

In general I'd just go with the generational algorithm unless I had a
reason not to. If I remember correctly, I think that in the Watchmaker
framework at least, the generational implementation makes better use of
multiple CPU cores.

Dan.

--
Daniel Dyer

[Vikas Agrawal]

Thanks Daniel, this definitely helps.