[Coin-announce] coin-standards mailing list now available

[Robin Lougee-Heimer]

At the INFORMS 2001 meeting in Miami, a lively panel discussion was held in
the Open Source Software cluster on "New Directions & Standard for the MPS
File Format".   The panel session was conceived by John Forrest (IBM
Research) and organized by Robin Lougee-Heimer (IBM Research).  The panel
was chaired by Bjarni Kristjansson (Maximal Software), and comprised of
panelist Lloyd Clarke (ILOG), Richard Laundy (Dash Optimization), Robert
Fourer (Northwestern Univ), and Matthew Saltzman (Clemson University).

Session abstract: "The MPS-file format for mathematical programming has
been extremely useful, but is showing its age. New technologies such as 64
bit hardware, stochastic solvers, and XML require new capabilities in the
open standard format. This panel will provide a forum for discussing
current problems and proposed solutions".

In addition to the discussion, two notable efforts that are currently
underway were briefly introduced: OptML by  Bjarni Kristjansson,  and SNOML
by Leo Lopes (Northwestern University) and Bob Fourer.

An action item from the panel session was to establish a mailing list to
continue the discussion and establish the next steps, along with a working
group and rules to carry them out.

The coin-standards mailing list has been established.  Everyone interested
in participating in the discussion is invited to join the mailing list.  To
subscribe, follow the "Mailing List" link at  http://www.coin-or.org.
People interested in taking leadership roles are welcome and encouraged to
do so.

Comming soon on the coin-standards mailing list - -  details on
participating in a  tele-conference discussion with principal writers of
the MathML specification.

Robin

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Robin Lougee-Heimer
IBM TJ Watson Research Center
ph: 914-945-3032   fax: 914-945-3434
robinlh at us.ibm.com
http://www.coin-or.org