Another interesting mutation bug

[Shen]

Another interesting yet slightly worrying mutation bug.

It appears that the start has been mutated out of the first gene, messing up the syntax. Dunno if this is intended but it could crash the sim if you start getting rid of stop and end. Bot attached

[Numsgil]

You're right, that's very worrying.  Unfortunately, I have no idea how to track it down.

I fixed a couple of bugs in 2.36.5 with weird DNA, so it shouldn't crash your program anymore (hopefully), but it's still definately not a good thing.

[PurpleYouko]

It would certainly appear to have lost its start wouldn't it.

That needs to be looked at. Trouble is how to replicate it  :wacko:

[Shen]

Well cond/start/stop are counted as lines in the genome arnt they? It could have just said like 'delete line 5' which happens to be start rather than an actual part of the gene.

[Old Henk]

Some real life mutations are deadly, and make organisms infertile. Why not in DB?

[Numsgil]

Not quite that simple.

There are something like 14 or so functions that change the DNA through mutations.  Each can potentially delete, move around, or add lines.  Also, alot of their comments are in italian.  Makes figuring out what the heck is going on a huge chore.

Also: the DNA is an array.  Think of it like a row of houses.  To add or delete DNA sequences it's not just 'insert here'. You have to come in and physically move every house downstream of the change.  That movement process can potentally be bug ridden.  It's just not an elegant proposition.

[Numsgil]

Some real life mutations are deadly, and make organisms infertile. Why not in DB?

Well, aside from the fact that the DNA shouldn't be doing that, I'm not against bad mutations occurring.  As long as it doesn't crash the sim.

[PurpleYouko]

Some real life mutations are deadly, and make organisms infertile. Why not in DB?

Not a very good analagy, I'm afraid.

A more suitable one would be if a single muation in a single organism were able to unravel all the physical laws of the entire universe, therby making the whole universe cease to exist.

That is what happens in DB some of the time.
Not a happy situation  :(

[Old Henk]

Ok, the it's ok. :)
so... As long as it doesn't crash the program all mutations are allowed?

[PurpleYouko]

Ok, the it's ok. :)
so... As long as it doesn't crash the program all mutations are allowed?

Exactly.

As long as the program doesn't crash then who cares what happens in the DNA. Some really cool stuff might eventually come out of it.

[PurpleYouko]

Well cond/start/stop are counted as lines in the genome arnt they? It could have just said like 'delete line 5' which happens to be start rather than an actual part of the gene.

As num said above, Not quite that simple.

What actually happens is that values in the DNA are split into subgroups. Start, stop, cond and end are the only members of their particular subgroup and they are supposed to be protected from any and all changes, deletions etc. except where an entire gene is duplicated or deleted.

The fact that a "start" can be removed somehow is a little concerning as it means that one of the failsafes has actually failed  :(

[Shen]

It might be something to do with just updating the dna with mutations. Im getting a lot of mutations that dont show any difference in the info panel, as well as blank space where it says its inserted something etc.

It might have just added a mutation and not updated its view of the dna. Or something. I dunno its a minefield this mutation business :(