CSPLib: Twenty Years On
This provides a foundational tool for researchers and practitioners in constraint programming, though it is incremental as it builds on the original 1999 work.
The authors introduced CSPLib in 1999 as a benchmark library for the constraints community, specifying problems in natural language to allow users to find good representations, and it has since become a valuable resource.
In 1999, we introduced CSPLib, a benchmark library for the constraints community. Our CP-1999 poster paper about CSPLib discussed the advantages and disadvantages of building such a library. Unlike some other domains such as theorem proving, or machine learning, representation was then and remains today a major issue in the success or failure to solve problems. Benchmarks in CSPLib are therefore specified in natural language as this allows users to find good representations for themselves. The community responded positively and CSPLib has become a valuable resource but, as we discuss here, we cannot rest.