kdiogenes

kdiogenes

Genetic Algorithms in Elixir: Chapter 1 sample implementation in Ruby finds a solution much faster

I translated the implementation in Chapter 1 (without mutation) for Ruby and get surprised that it’s find a solution much faster than the Elixir implementation.

The Ruby implementation finds the solution in about 10 seconds, while the Elixir one takes about 1 minute. I get a bit surprised by this result and couldn’t think of an explanation for this difference.

I’m sharing my Ruby implementation for anyone curious to explain this difference:

#!/usr/bin/env ruby
population =
  Array.new(100) do
    Array.new(1000) { [0, 1].sample }
  end

def evaluate(population)
  population.sort_by(&:sum).reverse
end

def selection(population)
  population.each_slice(2)
end

def crossover(population)
  population.reduce([]) do |offspring, parents|
    cx_point = cut = rand(1...parents[0].length)
    child1 = parents[0][0...cx_point] + parents[1][cx_point..-1]
    child2 = parents[1][0...cx_point] + parents[0][cx_point..-1]
    offspring << child1 << child2
  end
end

def algorithm(population)
  loop do
    best = population.max_by(&:sum)
    print "Current Best: #{best.sum}\r"
    break best if best.sum == 1000

    population = evaluate(population)
    population = selection(population)
    population = crossover(population)
  end
end

solution = algorithm(population)
puts "\nAnswer is\n"
puts solution.inspect

First Post!

kdiogenes

kdiogenes

After going further in the book (the algorithms have more output) I verified that the ruby implementation takes more generations to find the solution, but it runs each generation faster.

Where Next?

Popular Pragmatic Bookshelf topics Top

johnp
Running the examples in chapter 5 c under pytest 5.4.1 causes an AttributeError: ‘module’ object has no attribute ‘config’. In particula...
New
mikecargal
Title: Hands-On Rust (Chap 8 (Adding a Heads Up Display) It looks like ​.with_simple_console_no_bg​(SCREEN_WIDTH*2, SCREEN_HEIGHT*2...
New
herminiotorres
Hi @Margaret , On page VII the book tells us the example and snippets will be all using Elixir version 1.11 But on page 3 almost the en...
New
herminiotorres
Hi! I know not the intentions behind this narrative when called, on page XI: mount() |&gt; handle_event() |&gt; render() but the correc...
New
New
patoncrispy
I’m new to Rust and am using this book to learn more as well as to feed my interest in game dev. I’ve just finished the flappy dragon exa...
New
nicoatridge
Hi, I have just acquired Michael Fazio’s “Kotlin and Android Development” to learn about game programming for Android. I have a game in p...
New
brunogirin
When I run the coverage example to report on missing lines, I get: pytest --cov=cards --report=term-missing ch7 ERROR: usage: pytest [op...
New
Charles
In general, the book isn’t yet updated for Phoenix version 1.6. On page 18 of the book, the authors indicate that an auto generated of ro...
New
a.zampa
@mfazio23 I’m following the indications of the book and arriver ad chapter 10, but the app cannot be compiled due to an error in the Bas...
New

Other popular topics Top

Devtalk
Hello Devtalk World! Please let us know a little about who you are and where you’re from :nerd_face:
New
PragmaticBookshelf
Ruby, Io, Prolog, Scala, Erlang, Clojure, Haskell. With Seven Languages in Seven Weeks, by Bruce A. Tate, you’ll go beyond the syntax—and...
New
PragmaticBookshelf
Write Elixir tests that you can be proud of. Dive into Elixir’s test philosophy and gain mastery over the terminology and concepts that u...
New
PragmaticBookshelf
From finance to artificial intelligence, genetic algorithms are a powerful tool with a wide array of applications. But you don't need an ...
New
Margaret
Hello everyone! This thread is to tell you about what authors from The Pragmatic Bookshelf are writing on Medium.
1147 29994 760
New
foxtrottwist
A few weeks ago I started using Warp a terminal written in rust. Though in it’s current state of development there are a few caveats (tab...
New
New
PragmaticBookshelf
Develop, deploy, and debug BEAM applications using BEAMOps: a new paradigm that focuses on scalability, fault tolerance, and owning each ...
New
NewsBot
Node.js v22.14.0 has been released. Link: Release 2025-02-11, Version 22.14.0 'Jod' (LTS), @aduh95 · nodejs/node · GitHub
New
PragmaticBookshelf
A concise guide to MySQL 9 database administration, covering fundamental concepts, techniques, and best practices. Neil Smyth MySQL...
New

Sub Categories: