How to Change from Gecode 2.2.2 to Gecode 3.0.0

As Gecode 3.0.0 is a major revision, your programs that are written for Gecode 2.2.2 are likely to require some modifications before they work again. All modifications are straightforward, though.

This short summary shows how to adapt your models, for changes to propagator implementations, etc, please consult the changelog.

Passing parameters

Now everything is passed as reference (Space, Propagator, ModEventDelta, Advisor, Branching, and BranchingDesc).

The reason for this massive change is to be more C++ compliant and make the interfaces more consistent (at some places things were passed as references and at other places as pointers, for no obvious and explainable reason). Routines that create objects rather than pass them (such as copy, clone, or description) still return a pointer to an object (so that it can actually be deleted!).

You will have to rewrite your models and other programs using Gecode. For models this is easy enough:

• Replace "(Space* home" by "(Space& home".
• Replace "home->" by "home.".
• Replace "(this" by "(*this".

That should do the trick for 99% of the models.

For the other changes, just lookout for the changes in types and that "this" becomes "*this" now.

Set constrains

Element and convexity constraints on set variables have a more uniform interface, and the match constrained has been renamed to channel.

The values for variable and value selection for branching have been made consistent and extended. The following values have been renamed:

• SET_VAR_MIN_CARD -> SET_VAR_SIZE_MIN
• SET_VAR_MAX_CARD -> SET_VAR_SIZE_MAX
• SET_VAR_MIN_UNKNOWN_ELEM -> SET_VAR_MIN_MIN
• SET_VAR_MAX_UNKNOWN_ELEM -> SET_VAR_MAX_MAX
• SET_VAL_MIN -> SET_VAL_MIN_INC
• SET_VAL_MAX -> SET_VAL_MAX_INC

Tie-breaking and random selection is now supported.

Naming scheme for files

All files with extension .cc have been renamed to .cpp, and .icc has become .hpp. This avoids conflicts as .icc is typically used for other file types. All include directives are now specified using <...> notation instead of "...", so that Gecode headers do not clutter the include namespace of a client program.

Constrain method for best solution search

The constrain method used for best solution search must be virtual and takes an argument of type const Space& rather than Space* as argument.