New command-line flags: New flags have been added to customize searches without a config file, including --search-metric, --train-test-split, and --custom-formula. All UI settings can now be configured through these command-line flags. Run turingbot --help or see the documentation for more details.
Python library updates: Added support for arguments like search_metric and train_test_split in the start_process method, allowing programmatic control of all UI settings without a config file. See the documentation for details. Also added exception handling to raise errors for invalid paths.
History functions generalization: The history functions (delay and moving_average) have been updated to accept general functions in the first argument, enabling formulas like delay(x*sin(x),2). The history functions are now also supported in custom formulas, such as y = delay(f(x),1) or y = delay(f(x),f()).
Improve the UI responsiveness during optimizations when using large input files, such as those containing millions of rows.
Bug fixes
Fix a command-line mode issue where only the first column was used as input by default instead of all columns except the last.
Fix cases where zombie processes were still left behind after the program was closed.
Fix a bug that caused the program to hang when base functions appeared in custom formulas without being selected under "Search options".
Fix an issue that prevented the program from working in command-line mode over SSH.
v2.21.1
September 19th, 2024
Bug fixes
Fix the program sometimes crashing when starting a new run.
Python library: fix some macOS crashes, fix zombie processes being left behind if the script gets interrupted.
v2.21
September 9th, 2024
Changes
Add the option to specify a custom number of rows for the train/test split.
Add the RMLSE (Root Mean Squared Logarithmic Error) metric. Similar to "Mean Relative Error," it handles target variables across multiple magnitudes but penalizes large errors less aggressively. It requires the target variable to be strictly positive.
Add a y=x line to the "Observed vs Predicted" plot to better visualize the points.
Add the option to choose between log and symlog scales for plots. Previously, plots were always scaled using symlog, which behaves oddly when values are between 0 and 1.
When using cross-validation, export the training rows first, followed by the testing rows, in order, when clicking "Export data + predictions".
Set the "niceness" level of the program to 19 by default on Linux/MacOS. This helps prevent the UI and system from becoming unresponsive when using all CPU threads on these OS.
Toggle checkboxes when clicking on function names under "Search options".
Bug fixes
Fix the program sometimes crashing when starting a new run.
Fix incorrect output for "Export data+predictions" when the solution contains delay or moving_average.
Fix moving_average persisting after starting a search with both delay and moving_average, stopping, and then starting a search with only delay.
Prevent "Load formulas from file" from loading formulas containing base functions not allowed in the current search.
Fix custom formulas not being parsed when a dataset variable has a name similar to a base formula, such as "y = tan(x) + f()" not parsing if one of the variables is named "ta".
Fix the LaTeX output of logical_and and logical_or.
v2.20
August 15th, 2024
Changes
Add a progress message to the UI when a very large file is being loaded.
Do not truncate variable names to 10 characters. Instead, use the full variable names in formulas.
Add the RSS (residual sum of squares) error metric.
Bug fixes
Fix history functions (delay and moving_average) sometimes being shown with the wrong variable in the argument when the search contains more than one input variable.
Fix a bug that caused the program take a lot longer than necessary to load large files (> 1 GB) in recent releases.
Add missing "Correlation coefficient" option in the "Analysis" tab.
Fix LaTeX rendering for the "moving_average" function.
Fix the "Statistical summary" field in the "Analysis" tab overflowing when many input columns are present.
v2.19
July 19th, 2024
Changes
LaTeX rendering: Equations in the "Solutions" box are now rendered as LaTeX, making them a lot easier to read and interpret.
Export as LaTeX: This new menu option makes it possible to export equations in a format that can be directly copied and pasted into academic publications and technical reports.
Less parentheses: A new algorithm for placing parentheses in equations has been developed, reducing their frequency and thus the character count of equations.
Select/deselect groups of base functions by clicking on the corresponding headers. For instance, "Trigonometric functions" and "Exponential functions" are now clickable.
Do not select "Row number" when clicking on the "All/none" button for input variables, as the row number is usually not a relevant variable.
Minor UI optimizations to reduce its CPU usage.
Bug fixes
macOS signing: TuringBot is now a signed macOS application, resolving the cryptic "TuringBot is damaged and can't be opened. You should move it to the Trash" error message.
Add back the "Correlation coefficient" metric, accidentally removed in v2.18.
Fix periodic solutions being saved with "_tmp" extension on Windows.
v2.18.1
June 16th, 2024
Changes
Smoother startup: The program's launch has been refined to be visually smoother and less glitchy.
Bug fixes
Fix cross-validation errors not being correctly shown in the UI.
Fix the program crashing when "Matthews correlation" was selected as the error metric.
Windows only: Fix loading input files with UTF-8 characters in the filename, and fix saving settings when the username has UTF-8 characters.
Fix loading "Integer constants only" setting from a settings.cfg file (it was being ignored).
v2.18
June 10th, 2024
Changes
Seamless cross-platform experience: We have rewritten the UI from scratch in a new framework, ensuring a consistent and identical experience across all major operating systems.
MacOS support: We have added new .dmg installers for macOS, available in both Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3) and Intel versions. These updated installers do not require installing any dependencies manually and should "just work".
Caching of plots and UI errors: Solution errors and plots are now only calculated once per solution, allowing you to go back and forth between different solutions on the list without wasting CPU cycles.
Improved logging: We have streamlined "New solution found" log messages, grouping them together every 1 second for enhanced readability.
v2.16.1
February 21st, 2023
Bug fixes
Program still getting slow and unresponsive for large number of rows.
Interface errors not updated after loading formulas from a file with the search paused.
v2.16
February 3rd, 2023
Changes
Implement dataset normalization option (Advanced > Normalize the dataset). This speeds up the search when the input values are large.
Optimize the program for very large numbers of rows/columns. The interface should be much more responsive now and files with many columns should also load faster.
When cross-validation is enabled, only show the corresponding points (train or test sample) in the plot.
Reduce the minimum value of "Maximum formula size" from 10 to 1.
Add the input file filename to the "Statistical summary" box.
Make periodic output save immediately when the periodic output option is first set.
Use >= instead of > for upper bound search, and <= instead of < for lower bound search.
Stop the elapsed time counter from elapsing if the program is paused.
Bug fixes
Make "recent files" work in the file selection dialogues.
Fix bug where not all moving average lengths up to "Maximum history size" are used.
v2.14
November 17th, 2022
Changes
F-score: the F1-score metric has been replaced by the more general F-score metric with a customizable beta parameter. Lower values of beta favor precision over recall. Useful for stock market applications.
log10(x) base function has been added.
Random seed for random train/test split generation can now be manually set. When left at the default value (-1), a random seed will be used each time.
~30% faster performance after optimizations.
Customizable interface size: the interface size can now be adjusted under menu > interface scale. By default, this scale is now set to 90%.
Folder memory: the last used folders for exporting and loading files are now remembered even if the program is closed and launched again.
Negative predictive value metric has been added to the "Solution info" box for completeness of the confusion matrix.
Safe saving: whenever an output file is generated, it is now first saved with a _tmp extension and then renamed. This prevents the creation of partially written files in the event of power outages or crashes.
Select/deselect all: history functions are no longer toggled on by this button and must now be toggled manually.
macOS version: no longer requires manual dependency installations using brew. Feedback from macOS users as to whether TuringBot is working as expected would be highly appreciated.
Input dialog: on Windows and macOS, the system dialog for selecting the input file has been replaced by a more practical internal dialog.
Command-line improvements: it is now possible to load seed formulas from the command line with --formulas-file FILENAME and export formulas+predictions periodically with --predictions-file FILENAME.
Python improvements: the same options above have been added to the start_process method: predictions_file=None, formulas_file=None.
Bug fixes
Large formulas are not shown if more than 60 formulas with decreasing error are on display.
Broken "output type" button under the "set periodic output" window on Windows 10.
v2.12
May 20th, 2022
Changes
macOS version: a native macOS version of the program is now available. Feedback from Mac users would be highly appreciated.
Analysis tab: this new tab contains a customizable "Error vs Size" plot as well as statistical information about the input data. It replaces the old Prediction tab, which most users did not consider useful.
Binary cross-entropy: new search metric. Solves binary classification problems in terms of probabilities between 0 and 1. To use this metric, the target variable must contain two (and only two) classes represented by the numbers 0 and 1.
Matthews Correlation Coefficient: new search metric. Regarded to be one of the best classification metrics, it combines true positives, true negatives, false positives and false negatives into a single number between -1 and 1. See the documentation for details.
Precision, Recall, and Sensitivity: these metrics have been added to the "Solution info" box in the main tab of the interface. They allow solutions obtained with F1 score/MCC metrics to be much better interpreted and analyzed.
min(x, y) and max(x, y): new base formulas.
Export data+predictions: this option has been added to the menu, allowing data and predictions to be manually exported at any time.
Interface improvements: menus have been made more user friendly (no more overflowing menus with white space) and the interface colors have been made slightly more readable.
Periodic output: outputs are now only saved if new solutions have been found, preventing unnecessary disk usage.
File reading: input files are now read 30% faster.
Bug fixes
Broken interface on the latest Ubuntu versions.
Optimization considers y = 1e-200 to be a perfect fit when the correlation coefficient metric is used.
v2.10
February 18th, 2022
Changes
Observed vs predicted plot: you can now see your predictions as a function of the target variable by clicking on Plot x axis > Observed.
Symlog plot: when selecting log y or log x in the "Plot scale" menu, the behavior is now to calculate the "symlog" of the data just like in Python's Matplotlib, allowing negative numbers to be visualized nicely.
Folder memory: if you select a file in a menu, and then open that same menu later, the folder shown is now remembered.
Update frequency: the interface now updates more frequently.
Input file reading: now 30% faster, more robust, and with error handling: if the file is empty or unreadable, the program now shows an error message instead of crashing.
Special characters: the program now supports reading/saving files with UTF-8 filenames (including accented characters and non-Latin alphabets like Chinese and Russian).
Decimal places: when exporting solutions as text/Python/C or exporting data, constants are now written with more decimal places to avoid loss of accuracy.
Error comments: when exporting solutions as Python/C, a comment is now shown above each solution with its corresponding error.
Cross-validation error exporting: when saving solutions as text, the cross-validation error is now also saved (if cross-validation is enabled).
Cross-validation optimization: optimizations with cross-validation enabled are now much faster, especially for large input files.
Command-line help: running turingbot (or TuringBot.exe) with --help flag now shows a help message.
Bug fixes
Fix bug that caused the program to randomly crash after running for several hours.
Fix "Plot x axis" and "Plot scale" menus extending beyond the program window and looking weird.
Fix ghost solutions appearing in the Log messages.
Fix "Set periodic output" dialog disappearing after being closed once.
Fix broken function declarations when exporting as C/Python in Advanced mode.
log2(x) is now correctly read when typed into Advanced mode.