Tabu Search, and other stuff

[Dave.Touretzky@DST.BOLTZ.CS.CMU.EDU]

Okay, I was a little harder on Nirwan Ansari than I should have been.
Sorry, Nirwan.  But I see it's time to explain AGAIN what proper and
improper uses of the CONNECTIONISTS list are.  At the end of this message
are some answers about Tabu search.

It is always improper to ask questions on CONNECTIONISTS that you can
answer for yourself with a few minutes of work, such as visiting the
library or picking up a telephone.  It took me a grand total of 15
*seconds* to find a reference to Tabu Search in our online library index.
Most university libraries have access to some kind of on-line index, so
there's no excuse for not looking there first.  If one has absolutely no
idea what Tabu search is, then one has no business bothering the
CONNECTIONISTS readership with such an elementary question.  Go to your
library and DO THE WORK!  Or pick up the phone and call the person who
mentioned the term to you in the first place.

Even though Rich Fozzard is correct that *someone* on this list is likely
to have the answer to any technical question, this does not give people the
right to waste the time of everyone on this list just to save themselves a
tiny bit of work.  Rich's comment that "busy researchers are free not to
respond to such requests" is out of line, and misses the key point of
CONNECTIONISTS: that busy researchers *will not be bothered* by such
requests.  People who refuse to understand this policy will be removed from
the list.

Notwithstanding the above, there *is* a proper way to ask for references on
CONNECTIONISTS, and I agree with Rich that you can find things here that a
library search won't turn up.  But you should (a) give people something
back in return for bothering them, and (b) demonstrate that you have
already pursued the quick, obvious routes to finding the information you
desire.  The easiest way to do both these things is to FIRST do the library
work to find the basic references, then POST these as part of your query.
If this isn't concrete enough for some of you, here's an example:

WRONG WAY:   "Can someone please mail me all references to cascade correlation?"

RIGHT WAY:  "I'm looking for references to work on cascade correlation.  I've
  already read Fahlman's paper in NIPS 2, and his NIPS 3 abstract, and found
  the code in the nn-bench archive.  Is anyone aware of additional work with
  this algorithm?  I'll summarize and post results to the list."

Let's please not get into a long, boring thread about what constitutes
appropriate postings to this list.  If you feel you *must* express your
opinion on this matter, do it via email to me alone.  Most readers really
don't want to hear about it.

-- Dave

............ results of online index search on keyword "tabu": ............

  Idnum     08784922
  TYPE      technical
  DATE      900900
  AUTHOR    Friden, C. and Hertz, A. and De Werra, D.
  TITLE     Tabaris: an exact algorithm based on Tabu Search for finding a
            maximum independent set in a graph. (technical)
  SOURCE    Computers & Operations Research v17 n5 p437(9) 1990 Sept
  SUBJECT   Algorithm Analysis
            Theoretical Research
            New Technique
            Mathematical Models
            Algorithms
            Problem solving
            Graph theory
            Algorithms--analysis
            Problem solving--models
            Graph theory--research
  GRAPHICS  table
  CAPTIONS  Getting a maximum independent set in a graph. A general Tabu Search
            method. Algorithm STABULARGE for finding a large stable set.
  ABSTRACT  The process of finding a maximum independent set in an arbitrary
            graph is examined; the problem is an ingredient of many coloring
            algorithms. An exact algorithm for constructing a maximum
            independent set in a graph is developed that is an implicit
            enumeration algorithm using Tabu Search techniques at some steps
            to obtain some bounds on the independence number of a subgraph of
            the graph to be examined. The general procedure is formalized,
            and the Tabu Search metaheuristic serving as an essential part of
            the enumeration procedure is described.