Release Notes

Version 5.4 (2002-05-15)

This highlights in this version are the first release of the new constraint visualisation tools, a fully featured version of the new interval constraint solver (ic), major enhancements to the LP/MIP interface (eplex), and a code coverage analysis tool.

Libraries

lib(ic) enhancements
Extension of the search facilities provided by the IC library to include a port of the fd_search library, providing a convenient and flexible alternative to standard labelling for finite domain problems.
Various new libraries for global constraints and interfacing with eplex (see below).
Optimisations and bug fixes.
lib(eplex) enhancements
Implementation of multiple eplex-instances and independent solvers.
New, simple API for working with eplex-instances (eplex_xxx predicates).
ic can now be used for to represent eplex intervals instead of range.
Option to suppress initial solving when setting up a solver demon.
Presolve option can now be set independently for every solver instance.
Removed obsolete simplify- and integers(all) options.
New low-level predicates lp_var_get/4 and lp_add_constraints/3.
Added support for CPLEX 7.5 and XPRESS 13.10 (support withdrawn for CPLEX 5.0, CPLEX 6.0, XPRESS 12.50)
New library: lib(ic_eplex)
A port to IC of the eplex library.
New library: lib(ic_global)
A port to IC of the fd_global library (containing various global constraints such as element/3, atmost/3, sorted/2, etc.).
New libraries: lib(ic_cumulative), lib(ic_edge_finder) and lib(ic_edge_finder3)
Ports to IC of the FD's cumulative, edge_finder and edge_finder3 libraries (containing various strength disjunctive and cumulative constraints).
New library: lib(java_vc)
An implementation of a visualisation client which adheres to the new visualisation protocol
New library: lib(vc_support)
Support library for anybody wishing to implement their own visualisation clients. See below for more details
New library: lib(viewable)
Library for annotating programs so as to allow visualisation of the search
New library: lib(coverage)
A tool for obtaining and presenting code coverage information.
New library: lib(constraint_pools)
Support for the creation of solver instances and storage pools.
New library: lib(module_options)
Handling options for other libraries.
New library: lib(xml)
 A public domain library for parsing and generating XML, by John Fletcher.

 
Minor enhancements:
lib(pretty_printer)
More options, use of style sheets, coverage functionality moved to lib(coverage)
lib(remote_tools)
More flexible method of connecting the remote tools added
lib(source_processor)
New options to suppress macro-expansion and clause-expansion.
Withdrawn:
lib(ria)
superseded by lib(ic)
lib(r)
superseded by lib(eplex)
lib(ptags), lib(xref)
to be replaced by new implementations

Visualisation Tools

First release of Java(TM) based visualisation client. The java_vc library provides a simple but powerful user interface to graphically render the state of programs which have been annotated with predicates from the viewable library. Features include Please have a look at the new Visualisation Manual.

Development Environment

Kernel features

New built-in predicates:
New features:

Incompatibilities


Previous release notes