<story><title>Computer Scientists Break Traveling Salesperson Record</title><url>https://www.quantamagazine.org/computer-scientists-break-traveling-salesperson-record-20201008/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>MaxBarraclough</author><text>&amp;gt; able to subtract 0.2 billionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a percent&lt;p&gt;...&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; “This is a result I have wanted all my career,” said David Williamson of Cornell University, who has been studying the traveling salesperson problem since the 1980s&lt;p&gt;I love this. Oh to be a theoretician.&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;#x27;s hoping for a flood of further improvements.</text></comment>
<story><title>Computer Scientists Break Traveling Salesperson Record</title><url>https://www.quantamagazine.org/computer-scientists-break-traveling-salesperson-record-20201008/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>molticrystal</author><text>While it is wonderful they are getting closer to solving it, if your problem is a simple and practical you can try some alternative algorithms. For fun, I used pytspsa [0] which uses the simulated annealing method to solve the TSP and applied it to BOTW.&lt;p&gt;Simulated annealing was inspired by thermodynamic free energy involved in crystal formation from annealing metal. [1]&lt;p&gt;I combined it with a Breath of the Wild waypoint generator [2] to make my way around the map [3] in a mostly optimal fashion for my trip about Hyrule.&lt;p&gt;If you ever have a toy problem or even a real one, I suggest experimenting with pytspsa to see and understand in a concrete way the problem is solved.&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;ildoonet&amp;#x2F;simulated-annealing-for-tsp&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;ildoonet&amp;#x2F;simulated-annealing-for-tsp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Simulated_annealing&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Simulated_annealing&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;MrCheeze&amp;#x2F;botw-waypoint-map&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;MrCheeze&amp;#x2F;botw-waypoint-map&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[3] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;user-images.githubusercontent.com&amp;#x2F;2829875&amp;#x2F;28661246-0b631e52-7284-11e7-8bd5-71998c75b11b.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;user-images.githubusercontent.com&amp;#x2F;2829875&amp;#x2F;28661246-0...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>