[Coin-discuss] Announcing the DIP framework for decomposition in integer programming

[Ted Ralphs]

Announcing the DIP framework
=========================

We are pleased to announce the addition of the Decomposition in
Integer Programming (DIP) framework (https://projects.coin-or.org/Dip)
to the COIN-OR repository. DIP is an open-source, extensible framework
for implementing decomposition-based bounding algorithms for use in
solving large-scale discrete optimization problems. The framework
provides a simple API for experimenting with various
decomposition-based algorithms, such as Dantzig-Wolfe decomposition,
Lagrangian relaxation, and various cutting plane methods. Given a
compact formulation and a relaxation, the framework takes care of all
algorithmic details associated with implementing any of a wide range
of decomposition-based algorithms, such as branch and cut, branch and
price, branch and cut and price, subgradient-based Lagrangian
relaxation, branch and relax and cut, and decompose and cut. The user
can specify customizations, such as methods for generating valid
inequalities and branching, in terms of the variables of the compact
formulation, without having to worry about the details of any required
reformulations. DIP is used in combination with CHiPPS
(https://projects.coin-or.org/CHiPPS), which provides the underlying
tree search methodology required to execute decomposition-based
branch-and-bound algorightms using DIP

 * The DIP project page can be reached at https://projects.coin-or.org/Dip
 * The current stable version of DIP is 0.8 and the most recent
release is 0.8.2.
 * Interested users can subscribe to the DIP mailing list at
http://list.coin-or.org/mailman/listinfo/dip
 * Bugs can be reported at https://projects.coin-or.org/Dip/newticket
(registration required).

Please let us know if you have any questions or feedback and enjoy!

Matthew Galati
Ted Ralphs