The Help system currently provides minimum information about Calc's Solvers. See the file at https://help.libreoffice.org/7.0/en-US/text/scalc/01/solver.html?DbPAR=CALC#bm_id7654652. We should consider improving this aspect of the Help. For example: (1) Should it mention that the available Solver engines seem to be dependent on whether you've enabled a JRE or not. (2) The default engine isn't always a linear one (as stated in the last note of the page). (3) Could an example be included? (4) Is the help page at scalc/01/solver_options.xhp accessible to a user? I couldn't find any description on the Options dialog when I tried with the current 7.0 help. (5) Can we use anything from https://opengrok.libreoffice.org/xref/core/nlpsolver/ to improve the help pages?
Created attachment 163984 [details] Example problem for Calc Solver Help Page I wrote up an easy-to-follow example for the Solver help page.
(In reply to Steve Fanning from comment #0) > The Help system currently provides minimum information about Calc's Solvers. > See the file at > https://help.libreoffice.org/7.0/en-US/text/scalc/01/solver. > html?DbPAR=CALC#bm_id7654652. > > We should consider improving this aspect of the Help. > > For example: > (1) Should it mention that the available Solver engines seem to be dependent > on whether you've enabled a JRE or not. Tested in LO 7.2: The linear solver, CoinMP, and swarm algorithm are available even is a JRE is not enabled. the DEPS and SCO algorithms are added when a JRE is enabled. If you disable the JRE in LibreOffice, a prompt will show to inform that some algorithms require a JRE. But you can continue anyway. DEPS and SCO algorithms are unavailable then. > (2) The default engine isn't always a linear one (as stated in the last note > of the page). Can't see this note... > (3) Could an example be included? I am reluctant to transform the Help into an encyclopaedia. The example in comment#1 is a great piece of documentation, better fit in the wiki instead. A link to the wiki in the Help page is OK, as we did in the Calc Functions. > (4) Is the help page at scalc/01/solver_options.xhp accessible to a user? I > couldn't find any description on the Options dialog when I tried with the > current 7.0 help. It has been fixed since then. - bug#84599 - https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/help/+/94703 > (5) Can we use anything from > https://opengrok.libreoffice.org/xref/core/nlpsolver/ to improve the help > pages? We used info from the help pages pointed here
errata: bug#81599