Many thanks, Jeffrey. I was really pleased to look at your code. A good 
demonstration of the power of natural selection !

I did something similar some years ago, a little standalone for my students I 
called "Weasel", but your code is better organised, more elegant, and it's some 
sex in it (my "animals" were haploids and had asexual reproduction like 
bacteria). Why "Weasel" ? It stems from Richard Dawkins'  "the blind 
watchmaker" (1986). Quotation:

"I don't know who it was first pointed out that, given enough time, a monkey 
bashing away at random on a typewriter could produce all the works of 
Shakespeare. The operative phrase is, of course, given enough time. Let us 
limit the task facing our monkey somewhat. Suppose that he has to produce, not 
the complete works of Shakespeare but just the short sentence 'Methinks it is 
like a weasel', and we shall make it relatively easy by giving him a typewriter 
with a restricted keyboard, one with just the 26 (capital) letters, and a space 
bar. How long will he take to write this one little sentence?" 

I had the pleasure to hear Dawkins demonstrating his version of the algorithm 
at the CERN, Geneva.

Merry Christmas and happy new year

Jacques

******************************************
Prof. Jacques Hausser
Department of Ecology and Evolution
Biophore / Sorge
University of Lausanne
CH 1015 Lausanne
please use my private address:
6 route de Burtigny
CH-1269 Bassins
tel/fax:        ++ 41 22 366 19 40
mobile: ++ 41 79 757 05 24
E-Mail: jacques.haus...@unil.ch
*******************************************


_______________________________________________
use-livecode mailing list
use-livecode@lists.runrev.com
Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription 
preferences:
http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode

Reply via email to