HeuristicLab 2.0

After the release of HeuristicLab 1.0 and later HeuristicLab 1.1, the development team around Stefan Wagner and Michael Affenzeller sat together once again to gather ideas, problems and new requirements that would influence the creation of a new iteration in what has proven to be a successful optimization platform. Among many things it was decided that HeuristicLab 2.0 should provide an entirely new user experience and to lift the burden of programming off of researchers and scientists. The plugin concept of HeuristicLab 1.0 and 1.1 was rewritten and enhanced to allow a more fine grained implementation, not of whole algorithms or problems, but of simple operations.

The user of the new optimization framework, which is called HeuristicLab 2.0, selects among the operators to build powerful algorithms together during run time. Plugin management is taken to the next level by using a centralized update location where plugins can be stored and distributed to HeuristicLab 2.0 clients that in turn can use their functionality to enhance their algorithms, attack new problems or include powerful visualizations.

Another requirement of the new framework was to be able to use some of the work that has been put into HeuristicLab 1.1, mainly the optimization and problem plugins. So HeuristicLab 2.0 is backwards compatible and allows the use of HeuristicLab 1.1 plugins with just a tiny programming effort needed to adapt them. Because HeuristicLab 2.0 builds on the .NET Framework v2.0, recompiling the plugins is necessary.

HeuristicLab 2.0 will not be publicly available and constitutes an internal release.

Screenshots

Below are several screenshots of HeuristicLab 2.0. For a larger version please click on the images.