COMplexity, COMputability> A top-level general strategy which guides other heuristics to search for feasible solutions in domains where the task is hard. Metaheuristics have been most generally applied to problems classified as NP-Hard or NP-COMplete by the theory of COMputational COMplexity. However, metaheuristics would also be applied to other COMbinatorialoptimisation problems for which it is known that a polynomial-time solution exists but is not practical. Examples of metaheuristics are Tabu Search, {simulated annealing}, {genetic algorithms} and {memetic algorithms}. (1997-10-30)
