Implementation of an Open Source Optimization Software Package for Debian-Based Operating Systems

This paper aims to describe the development of an open source program (jNetPro) for network optimization problems. This application has been implemented in Java programming language and it has been mainly developed for educational purposes rather the solution of large-scale problems. Our motivation was to assist students to learn about some graph algorithms and to promote open source software into the Department of Technology Management at the University of Macedonia. The jNetPro application implements three network optimization algorithms; Dijkstra algorithm for the shortest path problem, and Kruskal and Prim algorithms for the minimum spanning tree problem. Although there exist several open source software packages, emphasis was given at the implementation of a program which can be installed to a Debian-based Linux operating system. The first stage of our methodology is to present some implementation issues for the creation of a.deb executable package, which can be installed to a Debian-based operating system. Next, we describe a short guide for the creation of a repository, which could be used by a student i