Designing Generic Algorithms for Operations Research

Bruno Bachelet (1) , Antoine Mahul (1) , Loïc Yon (1)

1 LIMOS - Laboratoire d'Informatique, de Modélisation et d'Optimisation des Systèmes

Design solutions have been proposed to implement generic data structures, however there is no technique that advanced for algorithms. This article discusses various problems encountered when designing reusable, extensible, algorithms for operations research. It explains how to use object-oriented concepts and the notion of genericity to design algorithms that are independent of the data structures and the algorithms they use, but that can still interact deeply with them. An object-oriented design can sometimes be considered to be less efficient than a classical one, and operations research is one of these scientific fields where efficiency really matters. Hence, the main goal of this article is to explain how to design algorithms that are both generic and efficient.

Mots clés: object-oriented design; operations research; algorithm implementation; genericity; reusability

Mots clés: conception orientée objet; recherche opérationnelle; implémentation d’algorithme; généricité; réutilisabilité

Domaines: Génie logiciel [cs.SE]; Recherche opérationnelle [math.OC]

Bruno Bachelet, Antoine Mahul, Loïc Yon. Designing Generic Algorithms for Operations Research. Software: Practice and Experience, 2006, 36 (1), pp.73-93. ⟨10.1002/spe.682⟩. ⟨hal-00107137⟩