========================================================
       Note on file formats and conversion for our NEOS solvers
       ========================================================
             Hans Mittelmann  <mittelmann@asu.edu>

Input formats (MPS, LP etc) for various optimization codes are not
very standardized. In order to provide users greater flexibility
but without guarantee that every file submitted will be successfully
processed we have implemented the following. A NEOS user who
believes files are not processed correctly should send us email.

=====
BPMPD
=====
  BPMPD only accepts strict MPS and QPS format. In all formats except
  AMPL names must thus not have more than 8 characters. The following
  happens with files submitted to NEOS-BPMPD:

  AMPL input:  files are read with AMPL and written out as MPS with
               option presolve 0
  LP input:    files are converted to MPS with lp2mps
  MPS input:   files are passed to BPMPD unchanged; they need to be in
               strict format
  QPS input:   files are passed to BPMPD unchanged; they need to be in
               strict format
NOTE: All attempts to use CPLEX and QSreader to allow other variants
of the formats or more checking lead to some files in the end not be
converted to the strict MPS format expected by BPMPD. The above way
of operation should work in (nearly?) all cases.


====
SCIP
====
  AMPL input:  files are read with AMPL and written out as MPS with
               option presolve 0
  MPS input:   files are read with QSopt/qsreader and written out in
               free MPS. they are then read by CPLEX and written out
               in MPS format, this allows to do maximization and
               provides additional checking by CPLEX
  CPLEX input: files are passed to SCIP unchanged
  ZIMPL input: files are passed to SCIP unchanged


========
FEASPUMP
========
  AMPL input:  files are read with AMPL and written out as MPS with
               option presolve 0
  MPS input:   files are read with QSopt/qsreader and written out in
               free MPS. they are then read by CPLEX and written out
               in MPS format, this allows to do maximization and
               provides additional checking by CPLEX
  CPLEX input: files are read with CPLEX and written out in MPS