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                    The Graph Template Library - GTL

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  PLEASE READ THE FILE 'COPYING' BEFORE APPLYING AND USING THIS SOFTWARE

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ABOUT GTL

   GTL, the "Graph Template Library", can be seen as an
   extension of the Standard Template Library STL to graphs and
   fundamental graph algorithms.

   Graphs are a common model for discrete relational structures,
   such as diagrams, nets and networks, hierarchies, plans,
   charts, or maps. And there are many important algorithms for
   graphs, such us exhaustive search, shortest path, minimum
   spanning tree, matching or network flow, with a wide range of
   applications in areas such as Computer Science, Discrete
   Mathematics, Chemistry, Molecular Biology, Operations
   Research, Engineering, Computer Aided Design, Project
   Management, Production Planning, Surveillance, and Maintenance
   Control, Cartography, and other application areas. The wide
   use of graphs is also due to the fact that they have a natural
   graphical representation and Graphlet is a tool for this.

   GTL is a platform independent and extendible C++ library. It
   is a useful aid to any software designer. GTL contains the
   classes needed to work with graphs, nodes and edges and some
   fundamental algorithms as building blocks for more complex
   graph algorithms.  Further algorithms are under development.

   Customized algorithms can be developed by experienced
   programmers. A major step shall be support for models of
   hierachically structured graph and the efficient manipulation
   of really large graphs.

   GTL has been designed and programmed following the guide lines
   of STL.


WHAT IS GTL?

   There are some basic data structures and algorithms which are frequently
   used in many programs.  This includes container classes such as vectors,
   sets and lists.

   Many commercial but some free libraries have implemented these data
   structures and algorithms in a general way. This makes them usable for
   many puposes.

   One of these libraries is the Standard Template Library (STL), an
   extremely flexible implementation of many container classes and standard
   algorithms. STL is supposed to become a part of the C++ standard library
   and therefore is an ideal basis when writing portable programs.

   Unfortunately, STL has no support for graphs and graph algorithms.
   However, graphs are widely used to model complex relational structures.

   Since we are intensively working with graph algorithms especially
   in Graphlet (http://www.fmi.uni-passau.de/Graphlet/), we decided to
   implement GTL, a graph library based on STL. For the design of
   GTL's API bases on the API of LEDA. GTL contains the classes
   needed to work with graphs, nodes and edges and some basic
   algorithms as building blocks for more complex graph
   algorithms. Further algorithms are under work.	  


VERSION:

   The most recent version is 1.2.2. 

   For the changes since the last release 1.2.1 please see the
   ChangeLog and NEWS files.


PLATFORMS:

  We are currently using GTL in Graphlet on the following platforms:
	
	* Solaris with gcc-3.x
	* Linux with gcc-3.x
	* MS Windows XP and Visual Studio .NET 2003
	* Mac OS X 10.2, 10.3 

HOMEPAGE:

   Please refer to our homepage 
  
	http://www.infosun.fmi.uni-passau.de/GTL
	
   for updates and latest news.


AUTHORS:

   GTL was designed and implemented by

	Michael Forster	<forster@fmi.uni-passau.de>
	Andreas Pick	<pick@fmi.uni-passau.de>
	Marcus Raitner	<raitner@fmi.uni-passau.de>

   Acknowledgements to

        Christian Bachmaier  <chris@infosun.fmi.uni-passau.de>


BUGS AND FEATURES:

   If you want to report any bugs in GTL or you have suggestions
   concerning desirable feature. Please let us know !

   We maintain mailing-lists for all these purposes. The
   following lists are available:

   gtl@infosun.fmi.uni-passau.de
   =============================
	Comments an questions about GTL to the GTL Team

   gtl-bugs@infosun.fmi.uni-passau.de
   ==================================
        Bug Reports

   gtl-users@infosun.fmi.uni-passau.de
   ===================================
        General Discussion about GTL

   gtl-announce@infosun.fmi.uni-passau.de
   ======================================
        Low traffic, read only list for announcements of new GTL
	versions.


   You can subscribe to the the gtl-announce or gtl-users list by
   sending mail to 

   gtl-announce-request@infosun.fmi.uni-passau.de or
   gtl-users-request@infosun.fmi.uni-passau.de 
   
   with the single word "subscribe" in the body of the message. 

   All announcements on the gtl-announce list are forwarded to
   the gtl-users list, so there is no need to subscribe to both.  

   Please send bugreports and/or suggestions to the appropriate list

   Always include the following informations in your bugreports:

	* Operating System / Version (+ Service Pack)
	* Compiler / Version (+ Service Pack)
	* GTL version
	* A detailed description of the bug
	* Any warnings or errors you get.
	* output of make
	* the file config.log
	* $20 :-)


