17.1 Combining Domains and Linear Constraints
Most optimisation problems arising in industry and commerce involve
different subproblems that are best addressed by different algorithms
and constraint solvers. In ECLiPSe it is easy to use different
constraint solvers in combination. The different solvers may share
variables and even constraints.
We discuss reasons for combining the eplex and IC solver libraries and explore ways of doing this. The repair
library plays a useful role in propagating solutions generated by a
linear solver to other variables handled by the domain solver.
We show how this works in a generic hybrid algorithm termed probing.