A Biologist's View of Software Evolution.
DeLesley S. Hutchins · 2005
Abstract. The term “software evolution ” is generally used as an analogy for biological evolution. This paper explores that analogy in more depth, analyzing software evolution from the biologist’s point of view. I give a basic introduction to genetic algorithms, and describe two major issues that effect evolvability: local optima in the search space, and genotype to phenotype mappings. Aspects and meta-programs address both of these issues. Encapsulation can be seen as a technique for reducing epistasis, while meta-programming can be seen as an analog to morphogenesis. 1