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CSSEvolve: guided stylesheet evolution (release inspired by recent evolving A/B testing post)

24 points by tectonic 18y ago

alexandros 18y ago
mindblowing! i could easily use this to optimize the appearance of the css in my websites... excellent work.
markbao 18y ago
2009: CSS stylesheets become self-aware and independently perform evolution Someone set us up the bomb.
snorkel 18y ago
I coded something similar a loooong time ago (long since lost the code) except that it had a hot-or-not type of grading system so the user would be shown each variation one a time, then user simply clicks on a rating for how much they like it on a scale of 0 - 10 and then they see the next variation. Of course the challenge is to seed it with meaningful font, layout, and color scheme templates otherwise the user gets bored slogging through hideous variants with purple fonts and lime green backgrounds. I hesitate to even mention it because some jerk will run off and patent it, but the real killer app of this kind guided design is architecture design software. Imagine a screen that simply shows you 4 possible variants of architectural plan, you choose just the ones you like, and the software cross-breeds the preferred designs and shows you 4 other variants and so on. People who don't know a damn thing about architecture could still use the software because they only need to point at what they like, and anyone can do that.
andr 18y ago
While the direction this is taking is ingenious, the concrete implementation is useless. There's a reason why genetic algorithms are automated - most of the mutations are useless, so it's a waste of person's time to look at all of them. What they could do is have the system teach itself which types of mutations go well with people. body { text-decoration: line-through } is not something anyone would want, yet it's the first thing I got. Edit: minor complaint - no UTF8 support. Another idea - a flicker mode, with the original and evolved design switching every half second or so. That's how astronomers detected disappearing stars in the past.

24 points by tectonic 18y ago

alexandros 18y ago

mindblowing! i could easily use this to optimize the appearance of the css in my websites... excellent work.

markbao 18y ago

2009: CSS stylesheets become self-aware and independently perform evolution Someone set us up the bomb.

snorkel 18y ago

I coded something similar a loooong time ago (long since lost the code) except that it had a hot-or-not type of grading system so the user would be shown each variation one a time, then user simply clicks on a rating for how much they like it on a scale of 0 - 10 and then they see the next variation. Of course the challenge is to seed it with meaningful font, layout, and color scheme templates otherwise the user gets bored slogging through hideous variants with purple fonts and lime green backgrounds. I hesitate to even mention it because some jerk will run off and patent it, but the real killer app of this kind guided design is architecture design software. Imagine a screen that simply shows you 4 possible variants of architectural plan, you choose just the ones you like, and the software cross-breeds the preferred designs and shows you 4 other variants and so on. People who don't know a damn thing about architecture could still use the software because they only need to point at what they like, and anyone can do that.

andr 18y ago

While the direction this is taking is ingenious, the concrete implementation is useless. There's a reason why genetic algorithms are automated - most of the mutations are useless, so it's a waste of person's time to look at all of them. What they could do is have the system teach itself which types of mutations go well with people. body { text-decoration: line-through } is not something anyone would want, yet it's the first thing I got. Edit: minor complaint - no UTF8 support. Another idea - a flicker mode, with the original and evolved design switching every half second or so. That's how astronomers detected disappearing stars in the past.