Genetic Programming in Mathematica

GP has traditionally been implemented in LISP but there is a slow migration towards faster languages like C++. Any implementation language is dictated not only by the speed of the platform but also by the desirability of such an implementation. With a large number of scientists migrating to scientifically-biased programming languages like Mathematica, such provides an ideal testbed for GP.In this study it was attempted to implement GP on a Mathematica platform, exploiting the advantages of Mathematica's unique capabilities. Wherever possible, optimizations have been applied to drive the GP algorithm towards realistic goals. At an early stage it was noted that the standard GP algorithm could be significantly speeded up by parallelisation and the distribution of processing. This was incorporated into the algorithm, using known techniques and Mathematica-specific knowledge.