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Solving Disjunctive Constraints for Interactive Graphical Applications

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Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming — CP 2001 (CP 2001)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2239))

Abstract

In interactive graphical applications we often require that objects do not overlap. Such non-overlap constraints can be modelled as disjunctions of arithmetic inequalities. Unfortunately, disjunctions are typically not handled by constraint solvers that support direct manipulation, in part because solving such problems is NP-hard. We showhere that is in fact possible to (re-)solve systems of disjunctive constraints representing non-overlap constraints suficiently fast to support direct manipulation in interactive graphical applications. The key insight behind our algorithms is that the disjuncts in a non-overlap constraint are not disjoint: during direct manipulation we need only move between disjuncts that are adjacent in the sense that they share the current solution. We give both a generic algorithm, and a version specialised for linear arithmetic constraints that makes use of the Cassowary constraint solving algorithm.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Comp. Science & Soft. Eng., Monash University, Australia

    Kim Marriott & Peter Moulder

  2. Dept. of Comp. Science & Soft. Eng., University of Melbourne, Australia

    Peter J. Stuckey

  3. Dept. of Computer Science & Eng., University of Washington, Seattle, USA

    Alan Borning

Authors
  1. Kim Marriott
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  2. Peter Moulder
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  3. Peter J. Stuckey
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  4. Alan Borning
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, The University of York, YO10 5DD, Heslington, York, UK

    Toby Walsh

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© 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Marriott, K., Moulder, P., Stuckey, P.J., Borning, A. (2001). Solving Disjunctive Constraints for Interactive Graphical Applications. In: Walsh, T. (eds) Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming — CP 2001. CP 2001. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2239. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45578-7_25

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45578-7_25

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-42863-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45578-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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