F# Optimization Modeling Language Utilizing Microsoft Solver Foundation

UPDATED WIKI: Home

joberon — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:09:12 GMT

The F# Optimization Domain Specific Language (ODSL) can be found on the main Solver Foundation code gallery site:

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/solverfoundation to download our Express Edition of Solver Foundation.

Solver Foundation 2.0 ODSL, including the units-of measure functionality, requires the F# build 1.9.7.8 or later.

- Solver Foundation Team

UPDATED WIKI: Home

joberon — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 07:45:27 GMT

The Optimization Domain Specific Language (ODSL) shipping in the current CTP of F# is built with the new Microsoft Solver Foundation.

Solver Foundation is a framework of solvers and modeling services enabling planning, risk modeling, and scheduling for .NET developers. It is integrated with the full power of the NETfx 3.5+ platform including LINQ for declarative binding to enterprise databases. Solver Foundation is delivered in a single, compact, CLS-compliant library.

Please visit http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/solverfoundation to download our Express Edition of Solver Foundation.

NEW POST: Tell Us More About Solver Foundation

joberon — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 21:34:31 GMT

We are please to announce our CTP of Microsoft Solver Foundation. Please visit http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/solverfoundation to download a free avaluation copy. An improved F# ODSL is included.

UPDATED WIKI: Home

joberon — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 20:36:14 GMT

The Optimization Domain Specific Language (ODSL) shipping in the current CTP of F# is built with the new Microsoft Solver Foundation.

Solver Foundation is a framework of solvers and modeling services enabling planning, risk modeling, and scheduling for .NET developers. It is integrated with the full power of the NETfx 3.5+ platform including LINQ for declarative binding to enterprise databases. Solver Foundation is delivered in a single, compact, CLS-compliant library.

To download an evaluation copy of Solver Foundation including the F# Opimization DSL, please visit http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/solverfoundation

NEW POST: installation problem

DavidLao — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:29:36 GMT

Thanks for the feedback. We added an installation note in the download section.

UPDATED RELEASE: F-Sharp Optimization DSL (Aug 29, 2008)

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:27:13 GMT

UPDATED RELEASE: F-Sharp Optimization DSL (Aug 29, 2008)

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:26:45 GMT

UPDATED RELEASE: F-Sharp Optimization DSL (Aug 29, 2008)

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:26:04 GMT

UPDATED RELEASE: F-Sharp Optimization DSL (Aug 29, 2008)

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:25:04 GMT

UPDATED RELEASE: F-Sharp Optimization DSL (Aug 29, 2008)

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:24:05 GMT

NEW POST: installation problem

jzh — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 08:13:00 GMT

ok, got it.

The instruction was too confusing.
the project files are under

<my documents>\Microsoft Solver Foundation\

instead of

<Program Files>\Microsoft Solver Foundation\1.0.6.4451\Documents\ as I understood.

that is strange. I would expect it to be installed at <Program Files>\Microsoft Solver Foundation\1.0.6.4451\samples.

NEW POST: installation problem

jzh — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 08:00:54 GMT

Let me be specific:

From the link you gave:
"Once you have installed the msi package, you can find the F# DSL library project and sample in the Microsoft Solver Foundation folder under Documents. "

That is where I was stuck. the "DSL libarary project and sample" is not there. There are only two document files under "Documents", nothing else.

NEW POST: Tell Us More About Solver Foundation

joberon — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 04:09:04 GMT

Thanks for the interest in Microsoft Solver Foundation. Yes, this will be a product that will be avaliable as an express edition via MSDN as well as an enterprise solution. We are just starting to roll out our technologies - our next being tools and documentation for C# and Python .NETfx developer in the near future.

NEW POST: installation problem

DavidLao — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 03:54:33 GMT

Please see the "Installing F# Optimization DSL" posting at http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/solverfoundationfs1/Thread/View.aspx?ThreadId=664

NEW POST: installation problem

fwaris — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 02:44:52 GMT

I have the same issue.

NEW POST: installation problem

jzh — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 01:28:12 GMT

After installing the example, there are only two documents under C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Solver Foundation\1.0.6.4451\Documents\
BetaEULAMicrosoftSolverFoundation.rtf
Domain Specific Languages for Microsoft Solver Foundation in FSharp.docx

I can not seem to find the mentioned example project anywhere. did I missed anything? Thanks!

NEW POST: Tell Us More About Solver Foundation

cbilson — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 06:04:27 GMT

This is really cool!...but...What is it? Is it a product? Something that will ship with something else?

Using reflector I can see some of what Solver Foundation seems capable of and I am very interested in using it. The DSL is great, but is there any information on using Solver Foundation directly? Is there a blog or team web site we can go to?

Any information would be much appreciated. Thanks!

NEW POST: Using the solver

robertpi — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 12:14:20 GMT

Hello,

I think its a great item to have bunch of solvers available on the .NET platform. However, perhaps the problem is that my knowngle of optimerization is somewhat limited, but I find the lack of documentation makes the library difficult to use. Providing an xml file with the doc comments would help, providing more samples would be even better.

The F# DSL is a really nice example of how the library can be used find the maxiumal or minimal value of linar equation, but linar equations aren't really why I'm interested in optimization. My interest in optimization was sparked by Toby Segaram's "Collective Intelligence", which has nice chapter on how stochasic optimization can be applied to real world problems. His optimizations represent solutions as a list of numbers to which a cost function is applied, its then the job of optimizor to search though the possible solutions using annealing or similar techniques. It's not obvious to me how I could implement this kind of technique using the solver library since most solvers seem to take "Term" which doesn't seem to let you use a custom function as a parameter.

Thanks and kind regards,
Robert

NEW POST: Installing F# Optimization DSL

DavidLao — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:40:47 GMT

The DSL library and sample requires Visual Studio 2008 and the F# CTP to work. You can download and install the F# Optimization DSL and Sample msi package from the Downloads section.

Once you have installed the msi package, you can find the F# DSL library project and sample in the Microsoft Solver Foundation folder under Documents.

To build the MSFDSL library, you can either open MSFDSL.sln with Visual Studio 2008 IDE or open a command window, navigate to %homepath%\Documents\Microsoft Solver Foundation, and run msbuild.

To run the DSL sample using F# Interactive, open a command window, navigate to %homepath%\Documents\Microsoft Solver Foundation\DSLLib, and run fsi Test.fsx.

CREATED ISSUE: LINQ Sources Being Used by Modelers

alexsto — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:19:43 GMT

We wish to track the kinds of LINQ sources being used primarily by Solver Foundation and F# users: RDBMS, in-memory, XML documents, etc. Are there any anomalous experiences across DLINQ, XLINQ, etc?