Weasel in C

weasel.c

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <time.h>

char* ALPHABET = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ ";
char* TARGET = "ME THINKS IT IS LIKE A WEASEL";
float RATE = 0.05;
int GENERATIONS = 250;
int ALPHABET_LEN = 27;

char* generate_candidate(char* string) {
    char* output = (char*) malloc(strlen(TARGET) * sizeof(char));
    size_t i;
    for(i = 0; i < strlen(string); i++) {
        if ((rand() % 100) > (RATE * 100))
            output[i] = string[i];
        else {
            output[i] = ALPHABET[rand() % ALPHABET_LEN];
        }
    }
    return output;
}

int check_fitness(char* string) {
    size_t i;
    int score = 0;
    for(i = 0; i < strlen(string); i++) {
        if (string[i] == TARGET[i]) {
            score++;
        }
    }
    return score;
}

char* run_generations(char* string) {
    char* candidate;
    char* winner;
    int old_score = 0;
    int new_score;
    int i;
    for(i = 0; i < GENERATIONS; i++) {
        candidate = generate_candidate(string);
        new_score = check_fitness(candidate);
        if(new_score > old_score) {
            winner = candidate;
            old_score = new_score;
        }
    }
    return winner;
}

char* random_seed() {
    srand(time(NULL));
    char* string = (char*) malloc(strlen(TARGET) * sizeof(char));
    size_t i;
    for(i = 0; i < strlen(TARGET); i++) {
        string[i] = ALPHABET[rand() % ALPHABET_LEN];
    }
    return string;
}

int main() {
    char* output;
    int counter = 0;
    output = run_generations(random_seed());
    printf("%d: %s\n", counter, output);
    counter++;
    if(output != TARGET)
        while(strcmp(output, TARGET)) {
            output = run_generations(output);
            printf("%d: %s\n", counter, output);
            counter++;
        }
    else {
        printf("%d: %s\n", counter, output);
    }
    return 0;
}

Go pointers!

Hell yeah!