[gecode-users] Gecode 3.0.0: What we will do. What do you want?

[David Rijsman]

I fully agree with Malcolm, on all remarks! 

I really like the open structure of Gecode, it is extremely easy to interface to another system but it seems that for debugging and visualization this is no longer valid. It is great to have gist but I require to have my own information and visualization both for the logic as the control. For logic Gecode is open enough for me to create information on the constraint network and also on domain reductions after adding constraints, but for the control I had no other option than to add code into the existing code base. This is not really what you want in an open system, I like to add code but not into existing files.  I will potentially have to redo my work for every release (especially 3.0.0 will have new branching and lots of more control). 

- What would be nice is to have is access to events in the control, with appropriate data, such that I can use this in my own system.

hope this makes sense,


David J Rijsman
Software Architect
Quintiq
 
T +31 (0)73 691 07 39
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>>> 
From: 	Malcolm Ryan <malcolmr at cse.unsw.edu.au>
To:	gecode list <users at gecode.org>
Date: 	6/26/2008 10:26 AM
Subject: 	Re: [gecode-users] Gecode 3.0.0: What we will do. What do you want?

On 26/06/2008, at 2:07 AM, Christian Schulte wrote:
> Now: What do you want? How can you help us? Are we missing something  
> really
> important? Is there something fundamentally wrong?

Firstly, let me thank you for a fabulous tool and better support than  
any free software I've encountered before. Research software is not  
usually any near the quality of Gecode and you deserve high acclaim  
for your work.

As for improvements, in the short term I think the push to fill out  
the documentation is important. In the longer term, it would be good  
to see more visualisation and debugging tools. If you make an error in  
your constraint definitions, at the moment it is very difficult to  
detect and isolate the problem. It is also hard to visualise whether  
your constraint system is propagating and searching efficiently. It  
would be very nice to have a graphical way to watch the propagation of  
information around the constraint graph.

Like any programming language, there are good and bad ways of writing  
constraint systems. At the moment the modelling problem remains a  
black art, only really properly understood by a few. I think it will  
remain that way as long as constraint propagation remains a black box.  
Solving this may require a significant about of HCI work, but I think  
it would be very valuable in the long run.

Malcolm

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