The following sections describe important steps to create algorithms and genetic operators. This guide only covers things related to Evolvica. For more information about the source code editor and the debugger please consult the included Eclipse user guides.
The first thing to do in Evolvica is to create an algorithm project. An algorithm must reside in a project while a project may contain more than one algorithm.
After starting Evolvica you are presented a navigator and a welcome page. The navigator contains an overview over all projects and files belonging to a project. In the beginning the navigator is empty.
Right-click the navigator and choose New > Project. Note that you can't create an algorithm from here (try it! the only thing that will happen is the appearance of an error message).
For the task of creating projects a wizard will guide you. The first wizard page asks you for a name of the project and the project location. You can choose the predefined location inside the Evolvica workspace or change the location to somewhere else to fit your needs. At the chosen location a project directory with the name of the project will be created automatically.
The next and last wizard page is the most complex. Here several Java-related project parameters can be adjusted, because an algorithm project is basically a Java project. The wizard page lets you configure the name of the source and output directories (defaults are src and classes), the classpath and libraries your project may depend on. Don't remove the evolvica-core libarary from the classpath, otherwise the built-in operators cannot be found. If you are lucky with the Java settings click finish to finally create the algorithm project.
Now the newly created project appears in the projects view along with two subfolders for algorithms and already predefined operators sorted into categories.