doc/getstart.dox
author kpeter
Mon, 18 Feb 2008 03:32:06 +0000
changeset 2575 e866e288cba6
parent 2470 46818ce27a60
permissions -rw-r--r--
Major improvements in NetworkSimplex.

Main changes:
- Use -potenital[] instead of potential[] to conform to the usual
terminology.
- Use function parameter instead of #define commands to select pivot rule.
- Use much faster implementation for the candidate list pivot rule.
It is about 5-20 times faster now.
- Add a new pivot rule called "Limited Search" that is a modified
version of "Block Search". It is about 25 percent faster on rather
sparse graphs.
- By default "Limited Search" is used for sparse graphs and
"Block Search" is used otherwise. This combined method is the most
efficient on every input class.
- Change the name of private members to start with "_".
- Change the name of function parameters not to start with "_".
- Remove unnecessary documentation for private members.
- Many doc improvements.
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/* -*- C++ -*-
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 *
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 * This file is a part of LEMON, a generic C++ optimization library
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 *
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 * Copyright (C) 2003-2008
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 * Egervary Jeno Kombinatorikus Optimalizalasi Kutatocsoport
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 * (Egervary Research Group on Combinatorial Optimization, EGRES).
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 *
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 * Permission to use, modify and distribute this software is granted
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 * provided that this copyright notice appears in all copies. For
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 * precise terms see the accompanying LICENSE file.
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 *
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 * This software is provided "AS IS" with no warranty of any kind,
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 * express or implied, and with no claim as to its suitability for any
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 * purpose.
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 *
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 */
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/**
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\page getstart How to start using LEMON
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In this page we detail how to start using LEMON, from downloading it to
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your computer, through the steps of installation, to showing a simple
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"Hello World" type program that already uses LEMON. We assume that you
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have a basic knowledge of your operating system and \c C++ programming
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language. The procedure is pretty straightforward, but if you have any
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difficulties don't hesitate to 
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<a href="mailto:lemon-user@lemon.cs.elte.hu">ask</a>.
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\section requirementsLEMON Hardware and software requirements
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In LEMON we use C++ templates heavily, thus compilation takes a
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considerable amount of time and memory. So some decent box would be
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advantageous. But otherwise there are no special hardware requirements.
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You will need a recent C++ compiler. Our primary target is the GNU C++
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Compiler (g++), from version 3.3 upwards. We also checked the Intel C++
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Compiler (icc). Microsoft Visual C++ .NET 2003 was also reported to
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work (but not the earlier versions). If you want to develop with LEMON
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under Windows you could consider using Cygwin.
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In this description we will suppose a Linux environment and GNU C++ Compiler.
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\subsection requirementsLP LP solver requirements
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The LEMON LP solver interface can use the GLPK (GNU Linear Programming
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Kit) ,CPLEX (was tested with CPLEX 7.5) and SoPlex solver. If you want
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to use it you will need at least one of these. See \ref configureFlags
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how to enable these at compile time.
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\section downloadLEMON How to download LEMON
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You can download LEMON from the LEMON web site:
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<a href="https://lemon.cs.elte.hu/site/products/">
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https://lemon.cs.elte.hu/site/products/</a> .
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There you will find released versions in form of <tt>.tar.gz</tt> files.
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If you want a developer version (for example you want to contribute in
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developing the library LEMON) then you might want to use our Subversion
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repository. This case is detailed later, so from now on we suppose that
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you downloaded a <tt>.tar.gz</tt> file.
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\section installLEMON How to install LEMON
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In order to install LEMON you have to do the following steps.
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Download the tarball (named <tt>lemon-x.y.z.tar.gz</tt> where \c x,\c y
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and \c z are numbers indicating the version of the library: in our example
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we will have <tt>lemon-0.3.1.tar.gz</tt>) and issue the following
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commands:
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\verbatim
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tar xvzf lemon-0.3.1.tar.gz
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cd lemon-0.3.1
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./configure
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make
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make check   #(This is optional, but recommended. It runs a bunch of tests.)
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make install
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\endverbatim
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These commands install LEMON under \c /usr/local (you will
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need root privileges to be able to install to that
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directory). If you want to install it to some other place, then
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pass the \c --prefix=DIRECTORY flag to <tt>./configure</tt>, for example:
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\verbatim
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./configure --prefix=/home/username/lemon
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\endverbatim
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In what follows we will assume that you were able to install to directory
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\c /usr/local, otherwise some extra care is to be taken to use the
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library.
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We briefly explain these commands below.
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\verbatim
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tar xvzf lemon-0.3.1.tar.gz
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\endverbatim
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This command untars the <tt>tar.gz</tt> file into a directory named <tt>
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lemon-0.3.1</tt>.
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\verbatim
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cd lemon-0.3.1
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\endverbatim
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Enters the directory.
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\verbatim
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./configure
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\endverbatim
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Does some configuration (creates makefiles etc).
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\verbatim
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make
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\endverbatim
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This command compiles the non-template part of LEMON into
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<b>libemon.a</b> file. It also compiles some benchmark and demo
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programs.
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\verbatim
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make check
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\endverbatim
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This is an optional step: it runs the test programs that we
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developed for LEMON to check whether the library works properly on
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your platform.
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\verbatim
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make install
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\endverbatim
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This will copy the directory structure to its final destination (e.g. to \c
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/usr/local) so that your system can access it. This command should
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be issued as "root", unless you provided a \c --prefix switch to
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the \c configure to install the library in non-default location.
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\subsection configureFlags Configure flags
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You can pass the following flags to <tt>./configure</tt> (see <tt>./configure</tt> --help
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for more):
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\verbatim
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--with-glpk[=PREFIX]
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\endverbatim
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Enable GLPK support (default). You should specify the prefix too if you
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installed it to some non-standard location (e.g. your home directory). If
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GLPK is not found, then GLPK support will be disabled.
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\verbatim
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--with-glpk-includedir=DIR
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\endverbatim
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The directory where the GLPK header files are located. This is only useful when
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the GLPK headers and libraries are not under the same prefix (which is
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unlikely).
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\verbatim
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--with-glpk-libdir=DIR
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\endverbatim
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The directory where the GLPK libraries are located. This is only useful when
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the GLPK headers and libraries are not under the same prefix (which is
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unlikely).
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\verbatim
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--without-glpk
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\endverbatim
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Disable GLPK support.
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\verbatim
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--with-cplex[=PREFIX]
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\endverbatim
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Enable CPLEX support (default). You should specify the prefix too if you
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installed it to some non-standard location (e.g. \c /opt/ilog/cplex75). If
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CPLEX is not found, then CPLEX support will be disabled.
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\verbatim
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--with-cplex-includedir=DIR
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\endverbatim
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The directory where the CPLEX header files are located. This is only useful
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when the CPLEX headers and libraries are not under the same prefix.
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\verbatim
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--with-cplex-libdir=DIR
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\endverbatim
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The directory where the CPLEX libraries are located. This is only useful when
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the CPLEX headers and libraries are not under the same prefix.
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\verbatim
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--without-cplex
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\endverbatim
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Disable CPLEX support.
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\verbatim 
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--with-soplex[=PREFIX] 
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\endverbatim 
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Enable SoPlex support (default). You should specify the prefix too if
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you installed it to some non-standard location. If SoPlex is not
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found, then SoPlex support will be disabled.
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\verbatim
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--with-soplex-includedir=DIR
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\endverbatim
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The directory where the SoPlex header files are located. This is only useful
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when the SoPlex headers and libraries are not under the same prefix.
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\verbatim
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--with-soplex-libdir=DIR
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\endverbatim
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The directory where the SoPlex libraries are located. This is only useful when
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the SoPlex headers and libraries are not under the same prefix.
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\verbatim
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--without-soplex
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\endverbatim
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Disable SoPlex support.
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\section svnCheckout How to checkout LEMON form our Subversion repository
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You can obtain the latest version of LEMON from our Subversion repository. To
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do this issue the following command:
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\verbatim
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svn co https://lemon.cs.elte.hu/svn/lemon/trunk lemon-src
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\endverbatim
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Use "lemon" as username, the password is empty.
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\section svnCompile How to compile the source from the repository
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You can compile the code from the repository similarly to the packaged
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version, but you will need to run \c autoreconf \c -vi or 
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<tt>./bootstrap</tt> in some older environment before <tt>./configure</tt>. See \c
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./configure \c --help for options. For bootstrapping you will need the
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following tools:
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 - <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/automake/">automake</a> (1.7 or newer)
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 - <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/">autoconf</a> (2.59 or newer)
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 - <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/libtool/">libtool</a>
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 - <a href="http://pkgconfig.freedesktop.org/">pkgconfig</a>
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To generate the documentation, run \c make \c doc. You will need
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<a href="http://www.doxygen.org/">Doxygen</a> for this.
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You can pass the \c --enable-doc=full flag to <tt>./configure</tt> to generate the
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internal documentation too.
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If you pass the \c --disable-doc flag to <tt>./configure</tt> then the documentation
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won't be installed, when you run \c make \c install (this speeds things up a
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bit).
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\section helloworld My first program using LEMON
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If you have installed LEMON on your system you can paste the
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following code segment into a file (you can find it as \c
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demo/hello_lemon.cc in the LEMON package) to have a first working
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program that uses library LEMON.
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\dontinclude hello_lemon.cc
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\skip include
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\until }
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First let us briefly explain how this program works.
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ListGraph is one of LEMON's graph classes. It is based on linked lists,
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therefore iterating throuh its edges and nodes is fast.
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After some convenience typedefs we create a graph and add three nodes to it.
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Then we add edges to it to form a complete graph.
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Then we iterate through all nodes of the graph. We use a constructor of the
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node iterator to initialize it to the first node. The operator++ is used to
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step to the next node. Using operator++ on the iterator pointing to the last
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node invalidates the iterator i.e. sets its value to
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\ref lemon::INVALID "INVALID". This is what we exploit in the stop condition.
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We can also iterate through all edges of the graph very similarly. The 
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\c target and
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\c source member functions can be used to access the endpoints of an edge.
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If your installation of LEMON into directory \c /usr/local was
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successful, then it is very easy to compile this program with the
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following command (the argument <tt>-lemon</tt> tells the compiler
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that we are using the installed library LEMON):
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\verbatim
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g++ hello_lemon.cc -o hello_lemon -lemon
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\endverbatim
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As a result you will get the exacutable \c hello_lemon in
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this directory that you can run by the command 
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\verbatim
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./hello_lemon
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\endverbatim
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If everything has gone well then the previous code fragment prints
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out the following:
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\verbatim
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Nodes: 2 1 0
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Edges: (0,2) (1,2) (0,1) (2,1) (1,0) (2,0)
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\endverbatim
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Congratulations!
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If you want to see more features, go to the
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\ref quicktour "Quick Tour to LEMON",
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if you want to see some demo programs then go to our 
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\ref demoprograms "Demo Programs" page! 
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*/