This ebook is the first authorized digital version of Kernighan and Ritchie's 1988 classic, The C Programming Language (2nd Ed.). One of the best-selling programming books published in the last fifty years, "K&R" has been called everything from the "bible" to "a landmark in computer science" and it has influenced generations of programmers. Available now for all leading ebook platforms, this concise and beautifully written text is a "must-have" reference for every serious programmers digital library.

As modestly described by the authors in the Preface to the First Edition, this "is not an introductory programming manual; it assumes some familiarity with basic programming concepts like variables, assignment statements, loops, and functions. Nonetheless, a novice programmer should be able to read along and pick up the language, although access to a more knowledgeable colleague will help."

The C programming language

http://www3.eng.cam.ac.uk/~hj231/Papers/rostering.pdf

Staff scheduling and rostering: A review of applications, methods and models

Hyper-heuristics comprise a set of approaches that are motivated (at least in part) by the goal of automating the design of heuristic methods to solve hard computational search problems. An underlying strategic research challenge is to develop more generally applicable search methodologies. The term hyper-heuristic is relatively new; it was first used in 2000 to describe heuristics to choose heuristics in the context of combinatorial optimisation. However, the idea of automating the design of heuristics is not new; it can be traced back to the 1960s. The definition of hyper-heuristics has been recently extended to refer to a search method or learning mechanism for selecting or generating heuristics to solve computational search problems. Two main hyper-heuristic categories can be considered: heuristic selection and heuristic generation. The distinguishing feature of hyper-heuristics is that they operate on a search space of heuristics (or heuristic components) rather than directly on the search space of solutions to the underlying problem that is being addressed. This paper presents a critical discussion of the scientific literature on hyper-heuristics including their origin and intellectual roots, a detailed account of the main types of approaches, and an overview of some related areas. Current research trends and directions for future research are also discussed.

/pdf/hyper-heuristics-a-survey-of-the-state-of-the-art-mwp7dhxfb3.pdf

Hyper-heuristics: a survey of the state of the art

Object-oriented analysis

http://www.cs.qub.ac.uk/~B.McCollum/publications/EJOR_07.pdf

A Graph-Based Hyper-Heuristic for Educational Timetabling Problems

http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~jli/papers/EJOR2003.pdf

A fuzzy genetic algorithm for driver scheduling

This paper investigates an emerging class of search algorithms, in which high-level domain independent heuristics, called hyper-heuristics, iteratively select and execute a set of application specific but simple search moves, called low-level heuristics, working toward achieving improved or even optimal solutions. Parallel architectures have been designed and evaluated. Results based on a university timetabling problem show an important relationship between performance, algorithm software and hardware implementation.

Distributed choice function hyper-heuristics for timetabling and scheduling

This paper presents a Tabu Search heuristic for driver scheduling problems, which are known to be NP-hard Multi-neighbourhoods and an appropriate memory scheme, which are essential elements of Tabu Search, have been designed and tailored for the driver scheduling problem Alternative designs have been tested and compared with best known solutions drawn from real-life data sets The algorithm is very fast, has achieved results comparable to those based on mathematical programming approaches, and has many potentials for future developments

Tabu Search for Driver Scheduling

A substantial part of the operating costs of public transport is attributable to drivers, whose efficient use therefore is important. The compilation of optimal work packages is difficult, being NP-hard. In practice, algorithmic advances and enhanced computing power have led to significant progress in achieving better schedules. However, differences in labor practices among modes of transport and operating companies make production of a truly general system with acceptable performance a difficult proposition. TRACS II has overcome these difficulties, being used with success by a substantial number of bus and train operators. Many theoretical aspects of the system have been published previously. This paper shows for the first time how theory and practice have been brought together, explaining the many features which have been added to the algorithmic kernel to provide a user-friendly and adaptable system designed to provide maximum flexibility in practice. We discuss the extent to which users have been involved in system development, leading to many practical successes, and we summarize some recent achievements.

/pdf/a-flexible-system-for-scheduling-drivers-3ck3z1tyxw.pdf

A flexible system for scheduling drivers

The integer linear programming (ILP) based optimization approaches to driver scheduling have had most success. However there is scope for a Genetic Algorithm (GA) approach, which is described in this paper, to make improvements in terms of computational efficiency, robustness, and capability to tackle large data sets. The question “What makes a good fit amongst potential shifts in forming a schedule?” is pursued to identify combinatorial traits associated with the data set. Such combinatorial traits are embedded into the genetic structure, so that they would play some role in the evolutionary process. They could be effective in narrowing down the solution space and they could assist in evaluating the fitness of individuals in the population.

Raymond S. K. Kwan

Papers

A fuzzy genetic algorithm for driver scheduling

Distributed choice function hyper-heuristics for timetabling and scheduling

Tabu Search for Driver Scheduling

A flexible system for scheduling drivers

Driver Scheduling Using Genetic Algorithms with Embedded Combinatorial Traits