Jc. Smart et V. Vemuri, INTERACTIVE SIMULATED ANNEALING FOR COMPLEX DEPENDENCY VISUALIZATION, International journal of general systems, 25(2), 1996, pp. 119-146
Citations number
26
Categorie Soggetti
System Science","Computer Science Theory & Methods",Ergonomics
An interactive tool for visualizing the dependency structure of comple
x systems using simulated annealing is presented. While a seemingly un
likely candidate for interactive use, simulated annealing is actually
quite adaptable. With the ability to adjust basic algorithm parameters
, an interactive system that allows a user to make tradeoffs between c
omputational investment and solution optimality is possible. This conc
ept is illustrated using a dependency visualization problem taken from
software engineering. A formal model for capturing dependency informa
tion extracted from software systems is constructed for this purpose.
Several simulated annealing strategies for generating and evaluating p
otential solutions within this model are then presented. A performance
analysis of the basic simulated annealing components used by this met
hod is discussed along with a comparison of different generation techn
iques. An integrated process which combines simulated annealing with o
ther interactive tools is described.