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CATS

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Experimental Methodology

The raison d'être of CATS is experimental research in discrete and combinatorial algorithms. Yet the area is relatively new and methodology to date is largely ad hoc. The major contribution of CATS to methodology is its enabling of comparisons between various solution methods. However, what should be measured and how remain difficult questions that each researcher should ponder carefully before embarking on a series of experiments. Guidance, or at least examples, can be found in the articles published in the ACM Journal of Experimental Algorithmics as well as in a forthcoming collection of papers edited by David Johnson in the DIMACS Monograph series, resulting from an Experimental Methodology Day held as part of a DIMACS Challenge Workshop; included is a review of the field by the editor-in-chief of the ACM JEA.