HENSON: a visualization framework for genetic algorithm users

This paper presents an extendable framework called "HENSON" that supports the development and application of genetic algorithm ("GA") visualizations. During the last few years the application of software visualization technology to support people's understanding and use of evolutionary computation ("EC") has been receiving increasing attention from within the EC community. However, the only visualization that could claim to be in common use is the "traditional" fitness versus time graph. It is suggested that the reason for the continuing lack of commonly used visualizations, is not due to a lack of good visualization design but rather a lack of good visualization support. In order for a visualization to be of practical use, the benefits of using the visualization must clearly outweigh the costs associated with producing it. Whilst the majority of EC visualization research continues to concentrate on the benefits of visualization, the work described in this paper concentrates on reducing the cost associated with producing visualizations. Thereby, improving the accessibility of visualization for GA users.