SOLVe Lab @ FER

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ECF - Evolutionary Computation Framework

ECF is a C++ framework intended for application of any type of evolutionary computation. Current features include:

• parameterless: genotype (individual structure) is the only mandatory parameter
• algorithms: steady state tournament, generational roulette-wheel, elimination, particle swarm optimization (PSO), differential evolution (DE), genetic annealing, artificial bee colony (ABC), clonal selection (CLONALG), immune optimization (optIA), evolution strategy, random search
• genetic algorithm genotypes (bitstring, binary encoded real values, floating point vectors, permutation vectors), genetic programming genotype (tree), analytic programming
• individuals may contain any genotypes in any number
• many examples: GP symbolic regression, GP artificial ant, function optimization, TSP, onemax, function optimization from CEC Real-Parameter Numerical Optimization
• configurable environment: changing algorithm, genotypes and parameters without recompilation
• checkpointing and population restoring, various termination criteria, repeated runs, crx and mutation operators selection and usage rate, migration

Download

• current package (v 1.6.1, 2026/04/10) is available at Sourceforge: ECF_1.6.1.zip
• the latest development version can be found at https://github.com/djakobovic/ECF

Documentation

These files are also included in the package (./help directory).

•  Install: installation and how to build the examples
•  Tutorial: how to use ECF (the quickest way in)
•  Documentation at https://ecf.readthedocs.io/: it's all in the details
•  Reference: browse, download (zip) (doxygen produced)
•  a short FAQ (complement to the Tutorial)

Integration with COCO benchmark:

• example with COCO (BBoB) functions now includes BBoB experiment with any ECF algorithm, example results:

Support:

• Domagoj Jakobović (domagoj.jakobovic @ fer.hr)
• forum at Sourceforge

References

• ECF: A C++ framework for evolutionary computation. D Jakobovic, M Đurasevic, S Picek, B Gašperov - SoftwareX, 2024

Contributors

(Alphabetical order): Hrvoje Ban, Vinko Bedek, Igor Bespaljko, Iva Brajer, Luka Donđivić, Luka Franov, Zvonimir Fras, Danko Komlen, Ivan Kokan, Luka Krizan, Maja Legac, Tomislav Novak, Lovro Paić-Antunović, Stjepan Picek, Dražen Popović, Ángel Ferreira-Santiago, Domagoj Stanković, Ivana Stokić, Mirjam Škarica

Project leader & support contact: Domagoj Jakobović (domagoj.jakobovic @ fer.hr)

Acknowledgements

ECF software uses the following components:

•  a simple but very useful XML parser

Additionally, this project was inspired by OpenBEAGLE, a comprehensive OO evolutionary framework.