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Checkers: Multi-modal Darwinian API Optimisation
2020·ICSE 2020
Figure 1: Evolving API usage. Call-site alleles swap between candidate libraries and patterns (a); fitness measured end-to-end decides which usage survives (b).∎
Most optimization edits code in place; Checkers evolves which APIs the code calls. Treating alternative library calls and usage patterns as interchangeable alleles, it searches across modalities — different libraries, different call patterns, different configurations — under the same Darwinian measure-and-select loop.
The result extends genetic improvement beyond a program's own statements to its relationship with its dependencies, widening the search space where real-world performance often hides.
Key results
- Optimization across API and library choices, not just program text
- Multi-modal search under a single fitness discipline
- Published at ICSE 2020