Evolvica

Version 0.6.3, July 20th, 2004

mirroring of operator in the GUI didn't work

Version 0.6.2, June 29th, 2004

updated termination package (feature request), linking condition via AND/OR is now possible
fix for incorrect update of properties view when creating non-trivial properties

Version 0.6.1, June 14th, 2004

fix for handling algorithms/operators in projects which contain spaces or other special characters in their project paths
fix for loading/saving operators with more than one segment in their package declaration

Version 0.6.0, April 27th, 2004

Evolvica now has its own project navigator. It provides an overview over existing algorithms and operators. Note that Copy and Paste is not yet working.
The new Project Navigator is now used for dragging operators to the algorithm editor.
A small outline of an algorithm is shown in the outline view. Not useful at the moment - this is reserved for future use.
The Attributes View has been removed. All properties of an algorithm or an operator are now shown directly in the Properties View of Eclipse.
The delete command in the algorithm editor now removes all selected objects instead of only the first one.
The background color of operator images can now be set.
The short descriptions of operator properties are now shown as tooltips in the Attributes view.
A menu item "Validate Algorithm" has been added. This checks for missing operators that are necessary as well as for open inputs and outputs.
Setting the input and output size of operators, which support that now finally works.
Interface of IScore changed: The method getValue() has been renamed to getValueAsObject(). In addition the score classes have now methods getValue() which allows to create scores from the GUI when needed (i.e. in termination conditions).
Checks for valid values added. In several operator classes more validity checks have been added in order to make it harder to create operators with invalid parameters.
Serious Fix for Algorithm Loading: A serious error has been corrected, that prevented algorithms from being loaded when using properties that were dependent from each other (and were not loaded in the correct order). The thrown property change vetoes led to an error.
Metadata support: An algorithm has now an attached metadata store to store data not directly related to the algorithm structure, such as the UI data. Don't take that metadata store as final - it will probably be changed in the future.
Algorithm elements now fire property changes upon metadata changes or structural changes. The event support is preliminary and will be extended in the future.
Some more evaluators have been added, i.e. for the Rosenbrock, Rastrigin and Griewank functions. These evaluators support two different genotypes (float array and double array).
The example classes have been removed and were added to their own Eclipse plugin. Algorithms and Java files are available for separate download.

Version 0.5.3, November 19th, 2003

Version 0.5.2 had a serious bug that caused trouble when creating algorithms under Linux. This should be fixed now.

Version 0.5.2, October 21th, 2003

The old Java and descriptor editors have been replaced by a new operator editor that allows to edit the source code and the descriptor information of an operator concurrently. The editor should be used by default automatically. If not, choose Open with > Operator Editor from the context menu of a Java or descriptor file. The old version of the descriptor editor is still available, but should not be used any longer and will be removed in the future.

Version 0.5.1, October 8th, 2003

An attributes view has been added as a replacement for the original properties view. The view will be opened automatically when closing and reopening the Evolvica perspective or can be manually opened by choosing Window > Show View > Attributes. The attributes view now (finally!!) supports array editing (even arrays of arrays are supported).
The XML format in which algorithms are saved has been changed to be able to handle arrays (and arrays of arrays) properly. Old files can be opened just like before, but will be saved in the new format.
Interface IAlgorithmRunner has been renamed to IRunner. This was done for consistency reasons. Should not affect users.

Version 0.5.0, August 27th, 2003

Additional information (like datatype and number of inputs and outputs) about operators is now held in separate files. Descriptors can be saved to XML files, so there's no need to attach descriptor information to the operator via the constructor.
The descriptors mentioned above can be edited via a separate editor.
To differentiate between files and directories as properties there's a new class called Directory. When editing such a property an editor is raised that only allows the selection of directories in the file system.
Non-trivial properties can now be set to NULL. For doing this just press "Restore Default Value" in the properties sheet. Please note that this works only for object properties, not for primitives.
Arrays of primitives can now be entered directly in the property sheet. For instance use the form {0,4,3,2,3} for entering an array of integers as the value for an int[] property.
In case of an occured exception in an algorithm, it is now possible to jump to the appropriate line in the source code by clicking the exception trace line in the console. Please note that existing projects need to be recreated to activate this feature.
Detection of custom operators now works more reliable.
Required libraries are now added to the classpath of a project automatically.
Palette entry {\em Connect} disappeared when updating the palette.
There's no need to enter descriptor information in the constructor of an operator. This information is now held in separate XML files. These files can be created via the GUI now.
The OneMax and the Rastrigin evaluator have been moved to the package org.evolvica.core.eval.
The ExtendedBitSet class has been replaced by BitVector.
All operators and genotypes are now serializable. Individuals collections should now be saveable correctly.

Version 0.4.0, July 7th, 2003

In the first public version 0.4.0 everything's new!