What changes have you made to cassowary?

[p-b-west]

Hi,

Can you tell me what changes you have hade to the original cassowary?

Thanks.

[ebolwidt]

On 12/4/13 7:04 AM, numinasthmatic wrote:

Hi,

Can you tell me what changes you have hade to the original cassowary?

Thanks.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#1.

Hi,

I only worked on the java version, and I focused (so far) only on
performance.
I was going to focus on a Layout Manager as it was related to work
activities, but my work focus changed so I haven't completed that.

However I did manage to achieve a major performance boost. Primarily by
using the more modern collections API instead of old-fashioned Vectors
and Hashtables (it makes the code more maintainable, and it offers some
performance improvement by not synchronizing - cassowary isn't
thread-safe in any case)
More specifically by using IdentityHashMap / IdentityHashSet to
associate objects with eachother instead of ordinary Maps - this
provides a major performance boost. In a few tests I did, this improved
performance 2-3 fold if I remember correctly.

Erwin

[p-b-west]

Hi Erwin,

Thanks for getting back to me. I don't have a mathematical background, so I struggle to understand the algorithm, but I'm going to try to dissect it. Do you understand the maths of the simplex and the modifications that were done by Badros and Borning? What I would like to do is separate out the standard simplex from the adjustments they have made for the edits and stays, if that is possible. The purpose would be to gain a better understanding of the algorithm, which might point the way to some improvements.

I started a project back in 2009 to update the JFlex, CUP and Cassowary project to use Java 1.6 Collections, generics and enums. That stalled when I couldn't get my changes accepted by the JFlex project. There was also the problem that the CUP developers were in the process of a complete rewrite of CUP.

Peter West

"Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe."

On 12/04/2013, at 3:12 PM, Erwin Bolwidt [email protected] wrote:

On 12/4/13 7:04 AM, numinasthmatic wrote:

Hi,

Can you tell me what changes you have hade to the original cassowary?

Thanks.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#1.

Hi,

I only worked on the java version, and I focused (so far) only on
performance.
I was going to focus on a Layout Manager as it was related to work
activities, but my work focus changed so I haven't completed that.

However I did manage to achieve a major performance boost. Primarily by
using the more modern collections API instead of old-fashioned Vectors
and Hashtables (it makes the code more maintainable, and it offers some
performance improvement by not synchronizing - cassowary isn't
thread-safe in any case)
More specifically by using IdentityHashMap / IdentityHashSet to
associate objects with eachother instead of ordinary Maps - this
provides a major performance boost. In a few tests I did, this improved
performance 2-3 fold if I remember correctly.

Erwin
—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[ebolwidt]

Hi,

I understand the idea behind linear constraint solving, and a little bit
about simplex. As I understand it, cassowary is interesting because of
the way in which variables are handled and how re-solving after the
initial solve is handled: if only variables change, solving is much
faster than if constraints were added. And the algorithm prefers small
changes to variable values. Both of which are useful when it is used for
user-interface layouts.

But cassowary isn't being maintained. The java code was written by C++
programmers, and quite a while ago - so it's not up to the current
accepted standards for Java source code, I believe.

Did you find the cassowary paper?
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.36.3894&rep=rep1&type=pdf

This page is a simpler description:
http://www.wikihow.com/Carry-out-the-Simplex-Algorithm

Erwin

On 12/4/13 9:00 PM, numinasthmatic wrote:

Hi Erwin,

Thanks for getting back to me. I don't have a mathematical background,
so I struggle to understand the algorithm, but I'm going to try to
dissect it. Do you understand the maths of the simplex and the
modifications that were done by Badros and Borning? What I would like
to do is separate out the standard simplex from the adjustments they
have made for the edits and stays, if that is possible. The purpose
would be to gain a better understanding of the algorithm, which might
point the way to some improvements.

I started a project back in 2009 to update the JFlex, CUP and
Cassowary project to use Java 1.6 Collections, generics and enums.
That stalled when I couldn't get my changes accepted by the JFlex
project. There was also the problem that the CUP developers were in
the process of a complete rewrite of CUP.

Peter West

"Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who
have not seen and yet believe."

On 12/04/2013, at 3:12 PM, Erwin Bolwidt [email protected]
wrote:

On 12/4/13 7:04 AM, numinasthmatic wrote:

Hi,

Can you tell me what changes you have hade to the original cassowary?

Thanks.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#1.

Hi,

I only worked on the java version, and I focused (so far) only on
performance.
I was going to focus on a Layout Manager as it was related to work
activities, but my work focus changed so I haven't completed that.

However I did manage to achieve a major performance boost. Primarily by
using the more modern collections API instead of old-fashioned Vectors
and Hashtables (it makes the code more maintainable, and it offers some
performance improvement by not synchronizing - cassowary isn't
thread-safe in any case)
More specifically by using IdentityHashMap / IdentityHashSet to
associate objects with eachother instead of ordinary Maps - this
provides a major performance boost. In a few tests I did, this improved
performance 2-3 fold if I remember correctly.

Erwin
—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#1 (comment).

[p-b-west]

Thanks Erwin,

I have read the B&B paper, which is available on the Cassowary web site. The other reference was very informative, especially the video.

Trying to build your project under NetBeans, I see the following problems.

Scanning for projects...

Some problems were encountered while building the effective model for org.klomp:cassowary:jar:1.0.0-SNAPSHOT
'build.plugins.plugin.version' for org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-compiler-plugin is missing. @ line 51, column 12
'build.plugins.plugin.version' for org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-eclipse-plugin is missing. @ line 61, column 12

It is highly recommended to fix these problems because they threaten the stability of your build.

For this reason, future Maven versions might no longer support building such malformed projects.

and

T E S T S

Running org.klomp.cassowary.AddDelResolversTest
starting timing test. nCns = 900, nSolvers = 15, nResolves = 400
done building data structures
done adding 900 constraints [1177 attempted, 0 exceptions]
done adding 900 constraints [1177 attempted, 0 exceptions]
done adding 900 constraints [1177 attempted, 0 exceptions]
done adding 900 constraints [1177 attempted, 0 exceptions]
done adding 900 constraints [1177 attempted, 0 exceptions]
done adding 900 constraints [1177 attempted, 0 exceptions]
done adding 900 constraints [1177 attempted, 0 exceptions]
done adding 900 constraints [1177 attempted, 0 exceptions]
done adding 900 constraints [1177 attempted, 0 exceptions]
done adding 900 constraints [1177 attempted, 0 exceptions]
done adding 900 constraints [1177 attempted, 0 exceptions]
done adding 900 constraints [1177 attempted, 0 exceptions]
done adding 900 constraints [1177 attempted, 0 exceptions]
done adding 900 constraints [1177 attempted, 0 exceptions]
done adding 900 constraints [1177 attempted, 0 exceptions]
Editing vars with indices 593, 170
about to start resolves
done resolves -- now ending edits
Elapsed time for add: 2.42 seconds
Elapsed time for resolve: 0.606 seconds
900,15,400,1,2420.0,14.0,606.0,5.0,0.17925925925925923,0.4666666666666667,0.10099999999999999,0.16666666666666666
Tests run: 1, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 4.805 sec
Running org.klomp.cassowary.CassowaryTest
Tests run: 10, Failures: 1, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 0.003 sec <<< FAILURE!
Running org.klomp.cassowary.util.IdentityHashDoubleMapTest
a
b
c
Tests run: 3, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0, Time elapsed: 0.001 sec

Results :

Failed tests: requiredEditVar(org.klomp.cassowary.CassowaryTest): _editVarMap.size() > 0

Tests run: 14, Failures: 1, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0

The problem is with the assert in ClSimplexSolver.java

// beginEdit() should be called before sending // resolve() messages, after adding the appropriate edit variables public final ClSimplexSolver beginEdit() throws CLInternalError { assert _editVarMap.size() > 0 : "_editVarMap.size() > 0"; // may later want to do more in here _infeasibleRows.clear(); resetStayConstants(); _stkCedcns.addFirst(new Integer(_editVarMap.size())); return this; }

Peter West

"Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe."

On 12/04/2013, at 11:26 PM, Erwin Bolwidt [email protected] wrote:

Hi,

I understand the idea behind linear constraint solving, and a little bit
about simplex. As I understand it, cassowary is interesting because of
the way in which variables are handled and how re-solving after the
initial solve is handled: if only variables change, solving is much
faster than if constraints were added. And the algorithm prefers small
changes to variable values. Both of which are useful when it is used for
user-interface layouts.

But cassowary isn't being maintained. The java code was written by C++
programmers, and quite a while ago - so it's not up to the current
accepted standards for Java source code, I believe.

Did you find the cassowary paper?
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.36.3894&rep=rep1&type=pdf

This page is a simpler description:
http://www.wikihow.com/Carry-out-the-Simplex-Algorithm

Erwin

On 12/4/13 9:00 PM, numinasthmatic wrote:

Hi Erwin,

Thanks for getting back to me. I don't have a mathematical background,
so I struggle to understand the algorithm, but I'm going to try to
dissect it. Do you understand the maths of the simplex and the
modifications that were done by Badros and Borning? What I would like
to do is separate out the standard simplex from the adjustments they
have made for the edits and stays, if that is possible. The purpose
would be to gain a better understanding of the algorithm, which might
point the way to some improvements.

I started a project back in 2009 to update the JFlex, CUP and
Cassowary project to use Java 1.6 Collections, generics and enums.
That stalled when I couldn't get my changes accepted by the JFlex
project. There was also the problem that the CUP developers were in
the process of a complete rewrite of CUP.

Peter West

"Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who
have not seen and yet believe."

On 12/04/2013, at 3:12 PM, Erwin Bolwidt [email protected]
wrote:

On 12/4/13 7:04 AM, numinasthmatic wrote:

Hi,

Can you tell me what changes you have hade to the original cassowary?

Thanks.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#1.

Hi,

I only worked on the java version, and I focused (so far) only on
performance.
I was going to focus on a Layout Manager as it was related to work
activities, but my work focus changed so I haven't completed that.

However I did manage to achieve a major performance boost. Primarily by
using the more modern collections API instead of old-fashioned Vectors
and Hashtables (it makes the code more maintainable, and it offers some
performance improvement by not synchronizing - cassowary isn't
thread-safe in any case)
More specifically by using IdentityHashMap / IdentityHashSet to
associate objects with eachother instead of ordinary Maps - this
provides a major performance boost. In a few tests I did, this improved
performance 2-3 fold if I remember correctly.

Erwin
—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#1 (comment).

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.