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There are many solvers claiming they are the best/fastest in their field. But there are many optimization classes and solvers for different purposes.

I always wanted to have a platform to let people discuss the best solver in their experiences. For example, I want to solve non-convex Quadratic Programming. It took me a while to realize that CPLEX does a pretty good job. But maybe someone will tell me X solver is also great, etc.

Also, solvers tend to show different outcomes in different programming languages. Matlab users suffer from this deeply. Therefore, I also think it would be great if people can discuss what kind of problems they solve with which solvers in what platform etc...

Is this feasible in SE? Can someone just post a survey-like question, collect answers, post the results etc?

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    $\begingroup$ You can ask on our chat and discuss it there; after it fills up with people, if there's no objections. $\endgroup$
    – Rob
    Commented May 31, 2019 at 6:02

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Unfortunately no,

Stack Exchange is not a discussion forum or discussion board in anyway. On the Stack Exchange network questions must be real world good/expert questions that are answerable, the system isn't meant to be used for polling, surveys, opinions or debating.

Questions that are used for stuff like polling, surveys, opinions, debating and things like that are too board, unanswerable and will create alot of noise in the community.

You can see for yourself if you look at the Don't Ask page in the help center.

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    $\begingroup$ I disagree. There is something called Community Wiki which can be used for such purpose. Those threads are some of the most useful on related SE sites such as Cross Validated and Math Overflow. Not polls, but answers can be lists and discussion of merits and uses of various solvers. $\endgroup$
    – Mark L. Stone
    Commented May 31, 2019 at 2:00
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"There are many solvers claiming they are the best/fastest in their field. But there are many optimization classes and solvers for different purposes. ...".

You can:

A survey question for 'Give me all the possible answers' is too broad and in most cases our sites will discourage such questions as it eventually results in a long list of answers that usually decay over the years. A specific question with a specific problem to solve, and what you've tried, is usually useful as any answers will be more focused. For example you could ask:

"I want to solve non-convex Quadratic Programming and I'm using CPLEX. Can someone suggest a solver with similar capabilities that is open source?".

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