lilgpMonitor User's Manual

If you are unfamiliar with genetic algorithms, genetic programming, or lil-gp, then you should begin by reading the lil-gp User's Manual.

• Comparative Analysis: able to have several monitors open simultaneously, each plotting up to two GP metrics
• Useful: graphs can be exported as GIF files for easy import into word processors
• Timed updates: automatically re-reads statistics file and updates graphs at regular intervals
• Manual updates: can manually control graph updates
• Intelligent scaling function: automatically calculates 'nice' tick placements on the y-axis
• User specified scales: accepts maximum y-axis values from user
• Independent scale selection: plot metrics using independent scales
• Dependent scale selection: plot metrics using the same scale
• Sub-population support: Point and click selection of sub-population statistics
• Line styles: different line styles available
• Help: linked to on-line help system

The current version of lilgpMonitor does not perform any data manipulation such as smoothing. As a result, data sets containing localized spikes that are several orders of magnitude larger than the average trend cause curves to appear 'flat' when plotted. However, since the user has control over the maximum value for the y-axis, there is some mechanism for producing useful information in these cases. This may or may not be considered a limitation.

Comments and suggestions may be sent to:

shoema16@cps.msu.edu
punch@cps.msu.edu

Department of Computer Science
3115 Engineering Building
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
USA

 
lilgpMonitor/ 
    classes/         (byte-code files)
    docs/            (documentation files)
        images/      (image files used in documentation)
    javadocs/        (source-code documentation files)
        images/      (image files used in source-code documentation)
    src/             (source-code files)

Before using lilgpMonitor, you must have Java JDK 1.02 installed on your system. To generate the .class files, change into the lilgpMonitor/src directory and type:

javac -d ../classes *.java

To run lilgpMonitor, simply change into the lilgpMonitor/classes directory and type:

java lilgpMonitor

If you are running the utilities under Windows95/NT, you will have to modify the paths in the above commands and also add the lilgpMonitor/classes directory to your CLASSPATH in place of the dot directory ".".

This is version 1.0 of lilgpMonitor. Updates and information related to lilgpMonitor can be found on the World Wide Web at http://isl.cps.msu.edu.

Figure 1 - The Main Window

As you can see, there are four menus available in the menubar at the top of the window. From the File menu, you may open a statistics file, save your graph as a GIF file, create a new monitor, close the current monitor, or close all monitors. From the Graph menu, you may select a line style for the curves. The Update menu has options for selecting either manual updates or automatic timed updates. Finally, the Help menu provides access to the on-line help system and also information about the author and version of lilgpMonitor that you are using.

The actual graph sits in the middle of the window, with all of its controls along the bottom. In Figure 1, there are two curves on the graph, each with its own scale. The red scale appears on the left axis, while the blue scale appears on the right axis. The various controls on the bottom of the widow allow you to select a scale, the maximum scale values, and the GP metrics and sub-populations you want to plot.

• Selecting Open causes a file dialog to appear. Simply select the statistics file that you are interested in and it will be opened.
• Selecting Save As also causes a file dialog to appear. Simply supply a file name and the graph will be converted into GIF format and saved.
• Selecting New Viewer will create a new statistics monitor that contains all of the same features as the original monitor that you opened.
• Selecting Close Viewer will destroy the current monitor. Any other monitors that are currently open will remain open.
• Selecting Exit All will destroy all of the monitors that are currently open.

• Selecting Lines will cause the curves to be plotted using line segments to connect the data points, as shown in Figure 2.
• Selecting Lines + Points will cause the curves to plotted using line segments to connect the data points, but will also draw a small diamond indicating the actual positions of the data points on the curve, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 2 - Lines

Figure 3 - Lines + Points

• Selecting Manual Updates/Update Now does two things. First, is stops the automatic update timer if it is currently set. Second, it reads the contents of the statistics file and refreshes the graph immediately.
• Selecting any of the update intervals sets the timer to update the graph automatically. For example, selecting 5 Minutes will cause the monitor to re-read the statistics file and refresh the graph every five minutes.

• Selecting Help provides access to the on-line help system.
• Selecting About provides information about the version of lilgpMonitor that you are using.

The default setting for the scale is Independent Automatic scaling. This means that lilgpMonitor will examine the data set and determine the best scales to use when plotting the curves. Figure 4 shows the result of using this combination of settings. In this case, the red curve is plotted using the scale on the left axis, while the blue curve is plotted using the scale on the right axis. These curves are plotted using independent scales. Since there are no values supplied in the y-max fields, lilgpMonitor automatically selects values that will allow the entire data set to be visible within the graph - this is automatic scaling. These settings are useful when you would like to view two GP metrics that are unrelated (i.e. standardized fitness versus tree size).

Figure 4 - Independent Autoscaling

By clicking on either the 'red' or 'blue' checkboxes, you will be selecting a dependent scaling mechanism with automatic scaling. This means that lilgpMonitor will apply the selected scale to both curves. Figure 5 shows the red scale being applied to both curves, while Figure 6 shows the blue scale being applied to both curves. These settings are useful when you would like to compare two GP metrics that are related (i.e. standardized fitness of sub-population 1 versus standardized fitness of sub-population 2). Looking back at Figure 4, you can see how it can be difficult to determine the relationship between two GP metrics when using Independent Autoscaling. It isn't until you examine Figure 5 where Dependent Autoscaling is used that you can clearly see the relationship between the two curves. Since the blue curve falls below the red curve in every generation, the red curve is not visible when Dependent Autoscaling is set on the blue curve in Figure 6.

Figure 5 - Red Dependent Autoscaling

Figure 6 - Blue Dependent Autoscaling

By changing the values in the y-max fields, you are selecting manual scaling. It is possible to have manual scaling active for one curve and automatic scaling active for the other curve by supplying a value for y-max in only one of the textfields. It is important to understand that when you select manual scaling, you are not actually specifying the scale of the curve, per se, but rather the maximum value that will be used to in determining the scale. For example, specifying a y-max value of 0.5 for the red curve will cause it to truncate the top of the tallest spikes as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7 - Independent Manual Scaling