Classic Computer Science Problems in Python

Chapter 5. Genetic algorithms

Genetic algorithms are not used for everyday programmatic problems. They are called upon when traditional algorithmic approaches are insufficient for arriving at a solution to a problem in a reasonable amount of time. In other words, genetic algorithms are usually reserved for complex problems without easy solutions. If you need a sense of what some of these complex problems might be, feel free to read ahead in section 5.7 before proceeding. One interesting example, though, is protein-ligand docking and drug design. Computational biologists need to design molecules that will bind to receptors to deliver drugs. There may be no obvious algorithm for designing a particular molecule, but as you will see, sometimes genetic ...