Marc Richards’s research while affiliated with Colorado State University and other places

In contrast with the diverse array of genetic algorithms, the Genetic Programming (GP) paradigm is usually applied in a relatively uniform manner. Heuristics have developed over time as to which replacement strategies and selection methods are best. The question addressed in this paper is relatively simple: since there are so many variants of evolutionary algorithm, how well do some of the other well known forms of evolutionary algorithm perform when used to evolve programs trees using s-expressions as the representation? Our results suggest a wide range of evolutionary algorithms are all equally good at evolving programs, including the simplest evolution strategies.