gurobimh 0.2

gurobimh: Unofficial Alternative Gurobi/Python Interface
========================================================

Overview
--------
`gurobimh` is a drop-in replacement for the `gurobipy` API bindings shipped with
[Gurobi](www.gurobi.com). It offers several advantages:

* `gurobimh` can be compiled for all current versions of Python (in particular, Python 3.4); you do not need
to rely on Gurobi officially supporting your desired Python version.
* `gurobimh`'s performance is much better, especially when modifying models a lot (like in a hand-written
branch and bound solver).
* `gurobimh` is free software an can be easily extended.
* `gurobimh` ships Cython `pxd` file which allows you to write statically typed Cython programs
for virtally C performance.

Of course, there are also disatvantages:
* Up to now, `gurobimh` supports only a subset of the official `gurobipy` API, in particular
quadratic programming is not yet supported, and lots of parameters are missing. However these
features are easy to implement once you look at how the others are, so you are welcome to
contribute. Simply put, I have only implemented the features I am using myself.
* Though I have successfully verified that `gurobimh` behaves like `gurobipy` for my programs,
there are probably lots of bugs, and of course there's no commercial support.

Requirements
------------
The API is written in [Python](www.python.org). To compile it, you need [Cython](www.cython.org). Of
course, you need to have Gurobi installed, and the `GUROBI_HOME` environment variable needs to be
set correctly.

Installation
------------

Download the package and type:

python setup.py install --user


In both commands, replace ``python`` by an appropriate call to your Python interpreter.


Usage
-----
Simply replace any `gurobipy` import statements with `gurobimh`. If anything goes wrong, file a bug!

Contact
-------
Please contact [me](helmling@uni-koblenz.de) or use the GitHub features for comments, bugs etc.