Population Storage/Recovery

[nnichols]

Sometimes it can be advantageous to store/retrieve a population from a file, and continue execution from a saved point.

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
No, this is a QOL enhancement

Describe the solution you'd like
A function that accepts a population and a file path, and writes a file containing the population to that location.
Another function accepting a file path that can read and parse the above into a population usable by nature.

Describe alternatives you've considered
N/A

Additional context
Use Case 1: if a fitness function relies on the # of social media responses in a 24 hour period, a user may wish to halt nature, store the population, and resume once sufficient data has been collected for their fitness function.

Use Case 2: during research, genetic operators are often pitted head-to-head. Given the large amount of probability-driven events, these comparisons require large amounts of data to bear statistical significance. By seeding multiple base populations, and running each through the full set of operators to compare, a large deal of variance can be controlled for.