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How to Use This Manual

The manual is divided into seven chapters. The first is the introduction, which you are reading now. Chapter 2 contains background information. Those not familiar with the basic methodology of branch, cut, and price may want to read these sections, especially Section 2.3, where we briefly describe the techniques involved. Chapter 3 contains an overview of the API, both for the callable library and for the user callback functions. Chapter 4 contains further depth and a more complete description of the design and implementation of SYMPHONY. In Section 4.1, we describe the overall design of SYMPHONY without reference to the implementational details and with only passing reference to parallelism. In Section 4.2, we discuss the details of the implementation. In Section 4.3, we briefly discuss issues involved in parallel execution of SYMPHONY. It is not necessary to read Chapters 2 and 4 before undertaking development of a SYMPHONY application. Chapter 5 describes how to install and compile SYMPHONY. Many users will want to go straight to this section of the manual to get started quickly. Chapter 6 describes in detail how to develop a custom application using SYMPHONY. Chapter 7 contains reference material. Section 7.1 contains a description of the native C interface for the callable library. Section 7.2 contains a description of the interface for C++ environments. Section 7.3 contains a description of the user callback functions. SYMPHONY's parameters are described in Section 7.4. Please note that for reference use, the HTML version of this manual may be more practical, as the embedded hyperlinks make it easier to navigate.


next up previous contents
Next: Technical Background Up: Introduction Previous: Introducing SYMPHONY 5.0
Ted Ralphs
2004-11-11