Optimization Software Class Libraries (Operations Research Computer Science Interfaces Series)

This book outlines packaged software class libraries to enable researchers to find cost-effective and efficient methods of getting problems coded into the computer, or into a modeling language package or into optimizing solvers - hence providing software coding solutions to whatever specialized needs a specific problem might require. Optimization Software Class Libraries provides the reader with a rich overview of the variety of components for framing problems. With the growing number of application-specific software systems and advance planning methods for specific classes of problems, class libraries for optimization are increasingly useful, practical, and needed. Benefits of Optimization Software Class Libraries are: Researchers will be able to invest more effort in examining better algorithms, performing experiments, and making use of problem-specific knowledge; The libraries that encapsulate general-purpose algorithms as reusable, high-quality software components are themselves significant contributions to ongoing research; and In addition to the research benefits, the libraries described provide substantial practical value to organizations that adopt them. Optimization problems in practice are diverse and evolve over time, giving rise to - quirements both for ready-to-use optimization software packages and for optimization software libraries, which provide more or less adaptable building blocks for app- cation-specific software systems. In order to apply optimization methods to a new type of problem, corresponding models and algorithms have to be “coded” so that they are accessible to a computer. One way to achieve this step is the use of a mod- ing language. Such modeling systems provide an excellent interface between models and solvers, but only for a limited range of model types (in some cases, for example, linear) due, in part, to limitations imposed by the solvers. Furthermore, while m- eling systems especially for heuristic search are an active research topic, it is still an open question as to whether such an approach may be generally successful. Modeling languages treat the solvers as a “black box” with numerous controls. Due to variations, for example, with respect to the pursued objective or specific problem properties, - dressing real-world problems often requires special purpose methods. Thus, we are faced with the difficulty of efficiently adapting and applying appropriate methods to these problems. Optimization software libraries are intended to make it relatively easy and cost effective to incorporate advanced planning methods in application-specific software systems. A general classification provides a distinction between callable packages, nume- cal libraries, and component libraries. Annotation Optimization software libraries provide more or less adaptable building blocks of solving optimization problems for application- specific software systems. Voss (Braunschweig U. of Technology, Germany) and Woodruff (U. of California at Davis, US) present ten chapters with the aim of discussing all the relevant aspects of component libraries. The material has been restricted to general approaches. Specific topics include local search heuristics for combinatorial optimization problems, writing local search algorithms using EasyLocal++, the OptQuest callable library, a constraint programming toolkit for local search, and other libraries. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) New information technologies continuously transform decision processes for managers and engineers.