Conference Proceedings
MiniZinc: Towards a standard CP modelling language
N Nethercote, PJ Stuckey, R Becket, S Brand, GJ Duck, G Tack
Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics) | Published : 2007
Abstract
There is no standard modelling language for constraint programming (CP) problems. Most solvers have their own modelling language. This makes it difficult for modellers to experiment with different solvers for a problem. In this paper we present MiniZinc, a simple but expressive CP modelling language which is suitable for modelling problems for a range of solvers and provides a reasonable compromise between many design possibilities. Equally importantly, we also propose a low-level solver-input language called FlatZinc, and a straightforward translation from MiniZinc to FlatZinc that preserves all solver-supported global constraints. This lets a solver writer support MiniZinc with a minimum o..
View full abstract