Techniques of optimization are applied in many problems in economics, automatic control, engineering, etc. and a wealth of literature is devoted to this subject. The first computer applications involved linear programming problems with simp- le structure and comparatively uncomplicated nonlinear pro- blems: These could be solved readily with the computational power of existing machines, more than 20 years ago. Problems of increasing size and nonlinear complexity made it necessa- ry to develop a complete new arsenal of methods for obtai- ning numerical results in a reasonable time. The...