Re: statistics distributions function names

[Ben Barrowes]

Looking at most of the functions, it looks like the functionality is 
meant to be compatible. One very simple solution would be to create a 
set of wrappers to the octave functions but with the matlab names. For 
example weibull_rnd.m in octave and weibrnd.m in ML:

...
function rnd = weibull_rnd (shape, scale, r, c)
 if (nargin > 1)
   if (!isscalar(shape) || !isscalar(scale))
     [retval, shape, scale] = common_size (shape, scale);

function r = weibrnd(a,b,varargin)
%WEIBRND Random arrays from the Weibull distribution.
%   R = WEIBRND(A,B) returns an array of random numbers chosen from the


A simple octave wrapper named weibrnd.m could be:

function rnd = weibrnd (varargin)
rnd = weibull_rnd (varargin{:});

Should the help be duplicated? Or just a little note that says something 
like "for help see weibull_rnd"?


Another solution is simply to copy weibull_rnd.m wholesale into a file 
weibrnd.m. That would allow users to call either weibull_rnd or weibrnd. 
One problem is that now two files with the same content need to be 
maintained.




Mike Miller wrote:

> 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



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