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From: ts@uwasa.fi (Timo Salmi)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: Re: Fitting files on disk
Message-ID: <1991Mar14.215753.7579@uwasa.fi>
Date: 14 Mar 91 21:57:53 GMT
References: <26272@adm.brl.mil>
Organization: University of Vaasa
Lines: 20

In article <26272@adm.brl.mil> NORM%IONAACAD.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu ( Norman Walsh) writes:
>
>Given a collection of n files (.zip files in my case) is there an
>algorithm (short of brute-force) for determining the best arrangement
>of files to fit on as few disks (of a given size) as possible?
:
>Any thoughts?

Your problem is an operations research problem called cutting plane
problem.  You could conduct a literature search using these
keywords, or something near them.  I'm not personally familiar with
the exact algorithms, but I know that the task has been known and
studied for a long time in the O.R. science.  Perhaps readers of
sci.math.num-analysis would have some further information on this. 

...................................................................
Prof. Timo Salmi        
Moderating at garbo.uwasa.fi anonymous ftp archives 128.214.12.37
School of Business Studies, University of Vaasa, SF-65101, Finland
Internet: ts@chyde.uwasa.fi Funet: gado::salmi Bitnet: salmi@finfun