tttplots compare a perl program to compare time-to-target plots or general runtime distributions of randomized algorithms

Run time distributions or time-to-target plots display on the ordinate axis the probability that an algorithm will find a solution at least as good as a given target value within a given running time, shown on the abscissa axis. Given a pair of different randomized algorithms and , we describe a numerical method that gives the probability that finds a solution at least as good as a given target value in a smaller computation time than , for the case where the runtimes of each of the two algorithms follow any runtime distribution. An illustrative example of a numerical application is also reported. We describe the perl program tttplots-compare, developed to compare time-to-target plots or general runtime distribution for measured CPU times of any two randomized heuristics. A listing of the perl program is given, and the program can also be downloaded from http://www.ic.uff.br/similar to celso/compare-tttplots..