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+# Gecode - Generic Constraint Development Environment
+
+Gecode is a toolkit for developing constraint-based systems and
+applications. Gecode provides a constraint solver with
+state-of-the-art performance while being modular and
+extensible. Gecode is:
+
+<dl>
+<dt>open</dt>
+<dd>
+Gecode is radically open for programming: it can be easily interfaced
+to other systems. It supports the programming of new constraints,
+branching strategies, and search engines. New variable domains can be
+programmed at the same level of efficiency as the variables that come
+predefined with Gecode.
+</dd>
+
+<dt>comprehensive</dt>
+<dd>
+Gecode has a comprehensive set of features: constraints over integers,
+Booleans, sets, and floats (it implements more than 70 constraints
+from the Global Constraint Catalog and many more on top); C++ modeling
+layer; advanced branching heuristics (accumulated failure count,
+activity); many search engines (parallel, interactive graphical,
+restarts); automatic symmetry breaking (LDSB); no-goods from restarts;
+MiniZinc support; and many more.
+</dd>
+
+<dt>efficient</dt>
+<dd>
+Gecode offers excellent performance with respect to both runtime and
+memory usage. It won all gold medals in all categories at the MiniZinc
+Challenges from 2008 to 2012.
+</dd>
+
+<dt>documented</dt>
+<dd>
+Gecode comes with both complete tutorial (more than 500 pages) and
+complete reference documentation that allows users to focus on
+different modeling and programming tasks with Gecode.
+</dd>
+
+<dt>free</dt>
+<dd>
+Gecode is distributed under the MIT license and is listed as free
+software by the FSF. All of its parts including reference
+documentation, implementations of global constraints, and examples are
+available as source code for download.
+</dd>
+
+<dt>portable</dt>
+<dd>
+Gecode is implemented in C++ that carefully follows the C++
+standard. It can be compiled with modern C++ compilers and runs on a
+wide range of machines (including 64bit machines).
+</dd>
+
+<dt>parallel</dt>
+<dd>
+Gecode complies with reality in that it exploits the multiple cores of
+today's commodity hardware for parallel search, giving an already
+efficient base system an additional edge.
+</dd>
+
+<dt>tested</dt>
+<dd>
+Gecode uses a test suite with almost 50000 different test cases
+reaching a test coverage close to 100%.  
+</dd>
+
+</dl>
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