[Coin-discuss] COIN-OR article and open-source solver question

[Brady Hunsaker]

I was glad to read the ORMS article on COIN.  I think it's important
to make people aware that when developing an application that uses
optimization, they do have a choice that won't tie them very tightly
to a particular solver and its interface.

It seems to me that it would help a great deal to have an interface to
an open-source solver as well.  Whatever happened to the efforts to
make an interface to bonsai?  Are there currently technical
difficulties, or did license incompatibilities prove insurmountable?

I almost got involved in COIN development once before and I have a
renewed interest now, though I'd want to work on an interface to an
open-source solver before anything else.  What is the primary obstacle
here: insufficient capabilities of open-source solvers, license
issues, something else?

Thanks,

Brady

----------------
Brady Hunsaker
Georgia Institute of Technology
Program in Algorithms, Combinatorics, and Optimization
School of Industrial and Systems Engineering

E-mail address:   hunsaker at isye.gatech.edu