Update documentation to include legacy initial_connection options.

Author: CodeReclaimers

docs/config_essentials.rst

@@ -186,9 +186,14 @@ Let's walk through the XOR example config with explanations:
    # Set to False if you need memory/temporal processing
    feed_forward            = True
    
-   # Start with all inputs connected to all outputs
-   # Options: full, partial, none
-   initial_connection      = full
+   # Start with all inputs connected to all outputs.
+   # Common options:
+   #   unconnected        - no initial connections
+   #   full_direct        - all inputs connected to all outputs (and hidden nodes, if any)
+   #   partial_direct #   - random subset of full_direct connections (0.0–1.0)
+   # Legacy values ``full`` and ``partial`` are accepted for backward compatibility but
+   # are deprecated; prefer the explicit variants above.
+   initial_connection      = full_direct
    
    # Activation function for neurons
    # sigmoid: outputs in range (0, 1) - good for most problems

docs/config_file.rst

@@ -402,7 +402,7 @@ required for your particular implementation.
 
 * *initial_connection*
     Specifies the initial connectivity of newly-created genomes.  (Note the effects on settings other than ``unconnected`` of the
-    :ref:`enabled_default <enabled-default-label>` parameter.) There are seven allowed values:
+    :ref:`enabled_default <enabled-default-label>` parameter.) There are seven primary values:
 
     * ``unconnected`` - No :term:`connections <connection>` are initially present. **This is the default.**
     * ``fs_neat_nohidden`` - One randomly-chosen :term:`input node` has one connection to each :term:`output node`. (This is one version of the
@@ -418,9 +418,20 @@ required for your particular implementation.
       have :term:`recurrent` (loopback, in this case) connections from each hidden or output node to itself.
     * ``partial_nodirect #`` - As for ``full_nodirect``, but each connection has a probability of being present determined by the number
       (valid values are in [0.0, 1.0]).
-    * ``partial_direct #`` - as for ``full_direct``, but each connection has a probability of being present determined by the number
+    * ``partial_direct #`` - As for ``full_direct``, but each connection has a probability of being present determined by the number
       (valid values are in [0.0, 1.0]).
 
+    Older versions of the documentation sometimes referred to this setting as ``none`` when no initial connections are present; the correct
+    configuration value is ``unconnected``. The string ``none`` is **not** a valid value for ``initial_connection``.
+
+    In addition, the following legacy aliases are accepted for backward compatibility but are **deprecated** and will be removed in a future
+    version:
+
+    * ``fs_neat`` - Behaves like ``fs_neat_nohidden``; when hidden nodes are present it emits a warning and connects only inputs to outputs.
+    * ``full`` - Behaves like ``full_nodirect``; when hidden nodes are present it emits a warning and creates no direct input-output connections.
+    * ``partial`` - Behaves like ``partial_nodirect`` (typically used as ``partial <fraction>``); when hidden nodes are present it emits a warning
+      and creates no direct input-output connections.
+
 .. versionchanged:: 0.92
   fs_neat split into fs_neat_nohidden and fs_neat_hidden; full, partial split into full_nodirect, full_direct, partial_nodirect, partial_direct
 

docs/quickstart.rst

@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ First, create a configuration file named ``config-xor``:
    enabled_rate_to_false_add = 0.0
    
    feed_forward            = True
-   initial_connection      = full
+   initial_connection      = full_direct
    
    node_add_prob           = 0.2
    node_delete_prob        = 0.2

examples/openai-lander/config

@@ -12,7 +12,8 @@ no_fitness_termination         = False
 num_inputs              = 8
 num_hidden              = 0
 num_outputs             = 4
-initial_connection      = partial 0.5
+# Random subset of all possible connections (0.0–1.0 fraction).
+initial_connection      = partial_direct 0.5
 feed_forward            = True
 compatibility_disjoint_coefficient = 1.0
 compatibility_weight_coefficient   = 1.0

examples/xor/config-feedforward

@@ -43,7 +43,8 @@ enabled_default         = True
 enabled_mutate_rate     = 0.01
 
 feed_forward            = True
-initial_connection      = full
+# Start with all inputs connected to all outputs.
+initial_connection      = full_direct
 
 # node add/remove rates
 node_add_prob           = 0.2