Download Provisional notes for Tplan version 29

Provisional notes for Tplan version 29.1
Harald Michalsen
Page 6 of 117
are few cases where the grammatical errors don’t tell what really goes wrong, and it may be
necessary to force a transfer to get a better survey.
The output file Lisy is split in two parts: Lisy and Lisys. Initially you will be interested in both files,
but as you do quite a number of new transfers it is perhaps sufficient with the more compressed and
vital info in file Lisy.
Analysis Program
The additional dialog here has been removed and the parameters here are now defined by a run
option. We only need to specify if we a creating a table from scratch or continuing from a partial
table already created.
Main Program
Here there is a set of additional parameters which must be specified:
Run mode: (Standard or Interactive)
In almost all cases you should use Standard mode. Earlier I had high hopes for the Interactive mode
where timetabling is stopped temporarily at once when you get a kickout, and the intention is to
adjust this immediately. That might often lead to dubious manual guesswork, but in some cases I
have found the technique useful, say the last part of a large timetable where only pure class
activities remained to be allocated.
PHASES OF THE MAIN PROGRAM
This is an important choice which you always must consider, and this is linked with a couple of
important run options. The Allocation phase uses options: Indirect room allocation + New room
allocation. The Adjustment phase substitutes this with Absolute room allocation. The first set of
options is definitely the best options while you gradually build a complete timetable and possibly
builds on a previous partial table. Sooner or later you reach a stage where all activities are assigned
in time, but there are still problems with some teacher/room changes. Now you must definitely
switch to Adjustment phase to keep firmly locked all the teacher/room changes you are going to
make, and you in addition have to return to a new transfer/analysis/main run for continued runs.
However, you risk that this continued run will not be as optimal as if you were in Allocation phase.
On the other hand a return to this phase means that you lose all the efforts with room adjustments.
So you have to make a choice!!
To sum this up:
Try to make a complete table in TIME using the Allocation phase and postpone as long as possible
teacher/room- changes. When you eventually solve all kickouts switch to Adjustment phase, and
you are stuck with that for the remainder of the process; in particular if you do many room changes.
(It could happen that these are few, and you could produce a new table in the better Allocation
phase starting from scratch with rooms.)