go(algo): add neighbour type

algo/stochasticHillClimbing.go

@@ -17,6 +17,10 @@
 	"gonum.org/v1/gonum/stat/distuv"
 )
 
+// neighbour is an alias for a float64 slice used for more natural handling of
+// the underlying data.
+type neighbour []float64
+
 func getSHCLogPrefix() string {
 	return " ***  stochastic hill climbing:"
 }
@@ -45,7 +49,7 @@ func initValsSHC(dimens uint, vals []float64, uniform *distuv.Uniform) {
 // selectBestNeighbour evaluates the randomly generated neighbours passed to it
 // as a parameter and points to the best one (the one yielding the greatest
 // progress in a favourable way).
-func selectBestNeighbour(neighbours [][]float64, benchFuncName string) ([]float64, float64) {
+func selectBestNeighbour(neighbours []neighbour, benchFuncName string) ([]float64, float64) {
 	// bestNeighbour is selected based on the value of the bench function it yields.
 	var bestNeighbour []float64
 
@@ -91,7 +95,7 @@ func getAllowedTweak(searchSpaceSize float64) float64 {
 	return bench.MaxNeighbourVariancePercent * (searchSpaceSize * 0.01)
 }
 
-func genNeighbours(n, dimens int, benchName string, origin []float64, neighbVals [][]float64) {
+func genNeighbours(n, dimens int, benchName string, origin []float64, neighbVals []neighbour) {
 	if dimens < 1 {
 		log.Fatalf("error: neighbour count set to: %d; want len(neighbVals) > 0, bailing\n", n)
 	}
@@ -139,7 +143,7 @@ func singleHillClimb(
 	benchName string,
 	oldVals []float64,
 ) ([]float64, float64) {
-	neighbours := make([][]float64, dimens)
+	neighbours := make([]neighbour, dimens)
 	// prealloc the slice the size of dimens (and oldVals, should be the same).
 	vals := make([]float64, len(oldVals))