INTERACTIVE SIMULATED ANNEALING FOR COMPLEX DEPENDENCY VISUALIZATION
J.C. Smart, Venkata Padma Kumar Vemuri · International Journal of General Systems · 1996
An interactive tool for visualizing the dependency structure of complex systems using simulated annealing is presented. While a seemingly unlikely 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 computational investment and solution optimality is possible. This concept is illustrated using a dependency visualization problem taken from software engineering. A formal model for capturing dependency information extracted from software systems is constructed for this purpose. Several simulated annealing strategies for generating and evaluating potential solutions within this model are then presented. A performance analysis of the basic simulated annealing components used by this method is discussed along with a comparison of different generation techniques. An integrated process which combines simulated annealing with other interactive tools is described.