6 March 2006 in Code | Comments enabled

A sorting algorithm that beats QuickSort (for those collections that don’t have maximum entropy) has just come out of the woodwork. The fact that a betteralgorithm was found is interesting in itself but what is far more interesting is how it came about.

A group have developed a tool called “Critticall”. In their own words it’s “A programming tool, which enables you to apply the Darwinian force to algorithms”. So basically it applies a generticalgorithm to develop better solutions for fundamental computer science algorithms. It’s quite cool that people are starting to apply genetic programming in ways that provide real solutions* (as opposed to the million and one examples where they’re used to find the shortest path between two points).

Source: Critticall homepage

- JD

* I realise they are used in other industries a bit but I don’t know too much about that, it’s nice that it’s being applied in my field of work