Re: statistics distributions function names

[Mike Miller]

On Fri, 24 Jun 2005, John W. Eaton wrote:

> On 23-Jun-2005, Ben Barrowes wrote:
>
> | Why are the names for the distribution functions in
> | /usr/local/share/octave/2.9.3/m/statistics/distributions/
> | different from their ML counterparts?
>
> I'm not certain, but it might be that some of the Octave functions were 
> written before the functions in Matlab.  Or, it might be that they were 
> written at a time when there was not so much empasis on compatibility 
> with Matlab.
>
> If you owuld like for this to improve, then please submit patches to 
> provide a compatibile interface.  It would be best to keep the current 
> interface at least for a while, perhaps also having the incompatible 
> functions emit warnings.


I actually was an unpaid consultant working with the Mathworks on the 
development of their stat toolbox.  That's where many of these functions 
are found.  When I started using Octave a little later, I noticed some of 
the names were different.  I liked the Octave names better than the MATLAB 
names.  It looks like the problem is that the MATLAB names were developed 
for MS Windows back when Windows 3.1 and DOS were still in use and every 
filename had to be in 8.3 format.  Octave was built for UNIX so it doesn't 
have that limitation.  Example: MATLAB uses the name poissinv.m and Octave 
uses poisson_inv.m.

Someone suggested the use of aliases.  How are aliases used in Octave? 
We could use symbolic links.

Mike

--
Michael B. Miller, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Division of Epidemiology and Community Health
and Institute of Human Genetics
University of Minnesota
http://taxa.epi.umn.edu/~mbmiller/



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