man bugsx (1): display and evolve biomorphs

DESCRIPTION

bugsx runs under MIT's X11 window system. It was written under UNIX but should be easily portable. It is a program which draws the biomorphs based on parametric plots of Fourier sine and cosine series and let's you play with them using the genetic algorithm.

The original version which ran under Suntools and XViews was written by Joshua R. Smith sometime 1990. See the 'credits' section for more details.

For more information about the theoretic backgrounds of bugsx consult Joshua R. Smith's paper distributed with this program (in postscript format). It can also be gotten from: http://physics.www.media.mit.edu/~jrs/biomorphs.ps

COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS

bugsx accepts the following command line options:

        +rv                     reverse video (use to override xrdb entry)
        +synchronous            syncronous mode (use to override xrdb entry)
        -?                      help
        -background <arg>       backgound color
        -batch                  run program in batch mode
        -bg <arg>               same as -background
        -bordercolor <arg>      border color
        -borderwidth <arg>      border width
        -display                display
        -extend_print           show extended reproduction info while running
        -fg <arg>               same as -forground
        -font <arg>             font
        -foreground <arg>       forground color (also file system bar color)
        -geometry <arg>         geometry (will override extreme window sizes to
                                apply reasonable settings)
        -help                   help
        -iconic                 iconic
        -interval <arg>         interval used per turn
        -mb                     show menu border
        -name <arg>             run bugsx under this name
        -nobreed                do not breed when running in bactch mode
        -number <arg>           number of biomorphs to draw (must be a square #)
        -printpop               print the population when breeding
        -rv                     reverse video
        -seed <arg>             use this seed for random number generator
        -segments <arg>         use this many segments to draw an organism
        -showbreed              show breeding subpopulation when in batch mode
        -showgenes              show a graphic representation of the genes
        -synchronous            synchronous mode
        -v                      verbose
        -xrm                    make no entry in resrouce database
        help                    help

RESOURCES

bugsx can be controlled via the following resources:

        background              universal backgound color
        batch                   run program in batch mode
        batchbreed              do not breed when running in bactch mode
        borderColor             border color
        borderWidth             border width
        display                 display
        extend_print            show extended reproduction info while running
        font                    font
        foreground              universal foreground color
        help                    show help
        mainWin.geometry        main window geometry
        iconic                  start program in iconic mode
        interval                interval used per turn
        minimize                minimize window size
        menuborder              draw menu borders
        name                    run bugsxunder this name
        number                  number of biomorphs to draw (must be a square #)
        printpop                print the population when breeding
        reverseVideo            reverse video
        seed                    use this seed for random number generator
        segments                use this many segments to draw an organism
        showbreed               show breeding subpopulation when in batch mode
        showgenes               show a graphic representation of the genes
        synchronous             syncronous mode
        verbose                 verbose mode

BRIEF USER'S GUIDE

Once you have started bugsx you will get a window containing the drawing windows and 3 menus. The Menus are:

        Initialize - Initializes the gene pool
        Breed      - Breed the selected organisms
        Quit       - exits bugsx

Once you have chosen "Initialize" and the first set of drawings is shown, you can select the ones you wish to be included in the cross-breeding by clicking (with the left button) on a drawing window. The selected organisms will be drawn inverse.

Clicking on Breed will cross breed the selected organisms using the genetic algorithm. If you have not selected at least two organisms, a set of at least two will be randomly chosen and used for the breeding.

The following keys can be used to control bugsx:

        q - quit bugsx
        i - initialize population
        b - breed

AUTHOR

bugsx was written by Joshua R. Smith ([email protected]) and ported to XWindows by Robert Gasch ([email protected]) and is copyright by the author(s).

CREDITS