[Coin-discuss] Open-source Modeling Languages

[Ted Ralphs]

Michael Hennebry wrote:
> On Tue, 20 Nov 2007, Brian Borchers wrote:
> 
>> First, although many normal users produce models using a modeling
>> language like AMPL, many other other users produce their problem
>> instances using conventional programming languages like C.
> 
> Yup.  Some of us write programs that do things like this:
> read data
> generate problem
> while(1) {
>     solve problem
>     if done break
>     use solve output to edit problem
> }
> print result
> 
> The edit problem part can be hard with modeling language.

Yes, that is my mode of use, too, but your ability to write that kind of 
code doesn't go away with OS. You can still use things like OSI to call 
linear solvers. OS just provides a standard interface for the back end. 
Such a standard interface didn't previously exist, which made it very 
difficult to think about extending OSI to support more that just linear 
solvers for instance. That's part of the reason our efforts to implement 
a second generation of OSI have languished. OS fills a huge void that 
has been there for a long time. It can only improve the current 
situation. No functionality that currently exists will go away. And once 
some of the current gaps are filled, the situation will be vastly improved.

Cheers,

Ted
-- 
Dr. Ted Ralphs
Associate Professor
Industrial and Systems Engineering
Lehigh University
(610)758-4784
ted at lehigh dot edu
www.lehigh.edu/~tkr2