The paradigm of pattern discovery based on constraints was introduced with the aim of providing to the user a tool to drive the discovery process towards potentially interesting patterns, with the positive side effect of achieving a more efficient computation. So far the research on this paradigm has mainly focussed on the latter aspect: the development of efficient algorithms for the evaluation of constraint-based mining queries. Due to the lack of research on methodological issues, the constraint-based pattern mining framework still suffers from many problems which limit its practical relevance. As a solution, in this paper we introduce the new paradigm of pattern discovery based on Soft Constraints. Albeit simple, the proposed paradigm overcomes all the major methodological drawbacks of the classical constraint-based paradigm, representing an important step further towards practical pattern discovery.
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