A rigorous formulation of the generalisation of schema analysis known as forma analysis is presented. This is shown to provide a direct mechanism for harnessing knowledge about a search space, codified through the imposition of equivalence relations over that space, to generate a genetic representation and operators. It is shown that a single characterisation of a space leads to a unique genetic representation, and the kinds of representations that are possible are classified and discussed. A relatively new operator, calledrandom assorting recombination (RARw), is defined rigorously and is shown to be, in an important sense, a universal recombination operator.
['Nicholas J. Radcliffe']
The algebra of genetic algorithms