FloatVectorSpecies Mutation Parameters Silently Ignored in Segments
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SigmaX commented
This is an issue that has tripped me up more than once over several years of using ECJ: with the exception of mutation-prob, the parameters of mutation operators for FloatVectorSpecies are silently ignore if no mutation-type is explicitly specified for the segment.
pop.subpop.0.species.segment.0.start = 0
pop.subpop.0.species.segment.0.mutation-type = gauss
pop.subpop.0.species.segment.0.mutation-prob = 0.5
# This mutation-stdev is read correctly, because mutation-type is specified
pop.subpop.0.species.segment.0.mutation-stdev = 0.1
pop.subpop.0.species.segment.1.start = 2
pop.subpop.0.species.segment.1.mutation-prob = 0.067
# This mutation-stdev is silently ignored, because mutation-type is not specified
pop.subpop.0.species.segment.1.mutation-stdev = -0.001
The mutation type is typically inherited from the global setting, so there is a strong temptation to omit it.
I once tried to fix this by re-writing ECJ's segments mechanism from scratch in a cleaner way, such that global settings were seamlessly inherited for all parameters. It might be worth attempting that again.
SigmaX commented
This seems to only bother me, and "rewriting ECJ's segments mechanism" is non-trivial. Closing.