On 01/17/2017 06:27 PM:
> I can upload succesfully now, but there seems to be another problem because the res.txt is not updated. The same thing holds for the box plots.

It might have been because your borwser was caching the images.
Trying reloading, or else opening in another borwser or an incognito window.

Now I added that the page should not be cached...

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The assignment description mentions "indeces of the variables", but the
data format doesn't specify any kind of indeces associated with the
variables. Should it be the order they are encountered in the file? And
should it be 1 or 0-indexed?



"Note that indices must start from 1 and not from 0. In the delivered
starting package they start from 0.”

Yes, I guess the index is the order in which they are met. I use a
library from COIN-OR
coin/CoinMpsIO.hpp
for reading the instances and rely on the indices after the import so I
do not know exactly.
I hope you are using that library too, reading MPS files is not
trivial. 


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On 14 Jan 2017, at 16:12


I have a question regarding the helpers.cc script.
Is it possible for me to access the delta cost component 1 in another function in the same script, eg. in RandomState?


You have to add the cost component to the class where the function that you want to implement reside. Look for example how this is done in StateManager:
http://www.imada.sdu.dk/~marco/Misc/EasyLocalpp/doc/html/statemanager_8hh_source.html
In particular the functions at lines 601 and then 560 and 522.

In fact you only need to add the CostComponent to the StateManage and the MoveDeltaCostComponent to the NeighbourhoodExplorer.


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I noted that some of you have GBs in the log files. Please submit a program that prints the least possible in the standard output. The only thing that is needed is the solution in the file that will be given a command line parameter to your program.


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In table 1 of the assignment description do the values in Optimal
stand for the sum of the objective function and the violations of
constraints or is it only the objective function?


only the objective function


> third: I don't really understand the differentiation between
> Construction Heuristic and Metaheuristic in table 2 in the description,
> does it imply that I have to do both? And how should it look like with
> results?

Most metaheuristics need a starting solution, which can be a random solution or the one provided by a construction heuristic.
The program you submit must do the best possible thing within the time limit, which is certainly not just the result of the construction heuristic. A metaheuristic indeed improves the results provided by a construction heuristic using the time left to the time limit.
Your final algorithm must be the consequence of motivated decisions...

However in the report you have to report also the results of the construction heuristic.


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Tue Jan  5 13:45:22 CET 2016

Where do I implement a construction heuristic?


You have to implement your construction heuristic in
StateManager::GreedyState and set the parameter
random_initial_state("random_state", "Random initial state",
this->parameters);

Below where that function is called:


template<class Input, class Output, class State, typename CFtype>
void AbstractLocalSearch<Input, Output, State, CFtype>::FindInitialState() {
 if (random_initial_state)
    current_state_cost = sm.SampleState(*p_current_state, init_trials);
 else {
      sm.GreedyState(*p_current_state);
      current_state_cost = sm.CostFunctionComponents(*p_current_state);
 }
 *p_best_state = *p_current_state;
 best_state_cost = current_state_cost;
}

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Mon Jan  4 19:35:37 CET 2016

Q: In input.hh, on lines 22-25, you write the following comments:

struct bounds {
   char type;
   // 5 == ; 3 x <= ub ; 2 x >= lb
   // but we will have only type 3 and 5.

but in the instance file ‘acc-tight4’ there are also constraints of type 2.
All this is confusing!



A: The comments are leftovers and should be deleted. Nothing of what
they say is true. Make sure that you are not misled but what they say.


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