The OPL Optimization Programming Language [Paperback]

Pascal Van Hentenryck (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 8, 1999

with contributions by Irvin Lustig, Laurent Michel, and Jean-François Puget


Linear programming, integer programming, and combinatorial optimization problems are ubiquitous in areas such as planning, scheduling, sequencing, resource allocation, design, and configuration, yet they are still challenging to formulate and express. OPL (Optimization Programming Language) is a new modeling language for combinatorial optimization that simplifies the formulation and solution of optimization problems. Perhaps the most significant dimension of OPL is the support for constraint programming, including sophisticated search specifications, logical and higher order constraints, and support for scheduling and resource allocation applications.

This book, written by the developer of OPL, is a comprehensive introduction to the OPL programming language and its application to problems in linear and integer programming, constraint programming, and scheduling. Readers should be familiar with combinatorial optimization, at least from an application standpoint.

An industrial implementation of OPL is available from the international software company Ilog.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Pascal Van Hentenryck is Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Brown University. He is the author or editor of several MIT Press books.

Product Details

• Paperback: 255 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (January 8, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262720302
• ISBN-13: 978-0262720304
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,459,724 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Concise description of constraint programming using OPL, January 28, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The OPL Optimization Programming Language (Paperback)

It is a good description of constraint programming. The book is very concise - I could read it in a couple of days. It helps to have some logic programming exposure although it is not required to understand the material. One can read the first two chapters and then jump straight to the particular application area that they are most interested in. For example, if you are interested in scheduling applications you could go straight to the scheduling chapter after reading the introduction.

There was some information that I wish was covered in the book but was not.

1. It would have helped to know which vendors and products support this language (OPL) and to what extent. 2. I would have liked to see a chapter on integrating OPL programs with programs written in procedural languages such as C/C++ because most real-world applications will not be written entirely in OPL. 3. There could have been one chapter or one example which illustrates how a problem can be expressed using constraints and how the same problem can be expressed in another language or using linear programming to illustrate the advantages of the language. 4. The explanation of how the run-time engine of the language works is sketchy. The book does cover how a user can guide the search space for a problem, but it would be better to explain how the default search mechanisms and heuristics work in greater detail.