diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 0c68cde5..173f37e9 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -68,8 +68,8 @@
         <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
         <version>2.3.2</version>
         <configuration>
-          <source>1.7</source>
-          <target>1.7</target>
+          <source>1.8</source>
+          <target>1.8</target>
         </configuration>
       </plugin>      
       <plugin>
diff --git a/src/eva2/gui/JTextoutputFrame.java b/src/eva2/gui/JTextoutputFrame.java
index 3b1973d5..33586681 100644
--- a/src/eva2/gui/JTextoutputFrame.java
+++ b/src/eva2/gui/JTextoutputFrame.java
@@ -80,6 +80,7 @@ public class JTextoutputFrame implements JTextoutputFrameInterface, ActionListen
         textArea.setCaretPosition(0);
         textArea.setTabSize(16);
         textArea.setFont(new Font("Courier New", Font.PLAIN, 12));
+        // Limit text output to 2500 Lines
         ((AbstractDocument)textArea.getDocument()).setDocumentFilter(new LineBufferDocumentFilter(textArea, 2500));
 
 
diff --git a/src/eva2/optimization/OptimizationParameters.java b/src/eva2/optimization/OptimizationParameters.java
index fef93cbe..daf63d2e 100644
--- a/src/eva2/optimization/OptimizationParameters.java
+++ b/src/eva2/optimization/OptimizationParameters.java
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import eva2.optimization.strategies.InterfaceOptimizer;
 import eva2.problems.F1Problem;
 import eva2.problems.InterfaceOptimizationProblem;
 import eva2.util.annotation.Description;
+import eva2.yaml.OptimizationConstructor;
 import org.yaml.snakeyaml.Yaml;
 
 import java.io.FileInputStream;
@@ -45,7 +46,7 @@ public class OptimizationParameters extends AbstractOptimizationParameters imple
         OptimizationParameters instance = null;
         try {
             FileInputStream fileStream = new FileInputStream(yamlFile);
-            instance = (OptimizationParameters) new Yaml().load(fileStream);
+            instance = (OptimizationParameters) new Yaml(new OptimizationConstructor()).load(fileStream);
         } catch (Exception ex) {
             System.out.println(ex.getStackTrace() + "\n" + ex.getMessage());
             LOGGER.log(Level.INFO, "Could not load OptimizationParameters.yml.", ex);
diff --git a/src/eva2/yaml/BeanSerializer.java b/src/eva2/yaml/BeanSerializer.java
index 4c9dd487..6b66a459 100644
--- a/src/eva2/yaml/BeanSerializer.java
+++ b/src/eva2/yaml/BeanSerializer.java
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import org.yaml.snakeyaml.Yaml;
 import org.yaml.snakeyaml.error.YAMLException;
 import org.yaml.snakeyaml.introspector.Property;
 import org.yaml.snakeyaml.nodes.Node;
+import org.yaml.snakeyaml.nodes.Tag;
 import org.yaml.snakeyaml.representer.Represent;
 import org.yaml.snakeyaml.representer.Representer;
 
@@ -39,6 +40,7 @@ public class BeanSerializer {
 class OptimizationRepresenter extends Representer {
     public OptimizationRepresenter() {
         this.representers.put(Population.class, new RepresentPopulation());
+        this.addClassTag(Population.class, new Tag("!population"));
     }
 
     @Override
@@ -71,7 +73,6 @@ class OptimizationRepresenter extends Representer {
     private class RepresentPopulation implements Represent {
         public Node representData(Object data) {
             try {
-
                 return representJavaBean(getProperties(data.getClass()), data);
             } catch (IntrospectionException var3) {
                 throw new YAMLException(var3);
diff --git a/src/eva2/yaml/OptimizationConstructor.java b/src/eva2/yaml/OptimizationConstructor.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e61bf536
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/eva2/yaml/OptimizationConstructor.java
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+package eva2.yaml;
+
+import eva2.optimization.operator.distancemetric.InterfaceDistanceMetric;
+import eva2.optimization.population.Population;
+import eva2.optimization.population.PopulationInitMethod;
+import eva2.tools.Pair;
+import org.yaml.snakeyaml.constructor.AbstractConstruct;
+import org.yaml.snakeyaml.constructor.Constructor;
+import org.yaml.snakeyaml.nodes.MappingNode;
+import org.yaml.snakeyaml.nodes.Node;
+import org.yaml.snakeyaml.nodes.Tag;
+
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.Map;
+
+/**
+ * Created by fabian on 07/12/15.
+ */
+public class OptimizationConstructor extends Constructor {
+    public OptimizationConstructor() {
+        this.yamlConstructors.put(new Tag("!population"), new ConstructPopulation());
+    }
+
+    private class ConstructPopulation extends AbstractConstruct {
+
+        @Override
+        public Object construct(Node node) {
+            Population pop = new Population();
+            Map<Object, Object> values = constructMapping((MappingNode)node);
+
+            pop.setInitAround((Double) values.get("initAround"));
+            pop.setInitMethod(PopulationInitMethod.valueOf((String) values.get("initMethod")));
+
+            ArrayList<Double> initPos = (ArrayList<Double>) values.get("initPos");
+            pop.setInitPos(initPos.stream().mapToDouble(Double::doubleValue).toArray());
+
+            pop.setPopMetric((InterfaceDistanceMetric) values.get("popMetric"));
+            //pop.setSeedCardinality((Pair<Integer, Integer>) values.get("seedCardinality"));
+            pop.setTargetSize((Integer) values.get("targetSize"));
+            return pop;
+        }
+    }
+}