Re: [ANN] orgtbl-fit

[Ihor Radchenko]

tbanelwebmin <tbanelwebmin@free.fr> writes:

>>> Examples & documentation can be read here:
>>> https://github.com/tbanel/orgtblfit/blob/main/README.org
>> Interesting.
>> Could it be somehow integrated with TBLFM formulas?
>> I imagine something like
>>
>> ? +?*year +?*passengers +?*(year-2016)*passengers
>>
>> , when set as a column value in table formula, to be auto-updated with
>> actual coefficients upon re-calculating the table.
>> ...
> We need to specify the target column ("consumption" in this example). 
> Therefore, the formula could be something like that:
>
> $4 = fit (consumption = ? +?*year +?*passengers +?*(year-2016)*passengers)
> It would benefit from other spreadsheet features, like constants and 
> remote references.

Makes sense.

> On the development side, the TBLFM handling is already quite a big chunk 
> of code. We must take care that such an additional feature do not add 
> complexity and maintenance burden.

>From point of view of org-table.el, adding fitting functionality is
mostly delegating the work to GNU Calc. Org side is just parsing the
formula and transforming it to appropriate Calc function call.

So, given that the parsing is extended cleanly, I do not think that
maintenance burden will increase all that much. It may even benefit from
someone taking a fresh look and possibly refactoring org-table TBLFM
parser.

> Orgtbl-fit as-is
> ----------------
>
> It is also possible to include orgtbl-fit as-is into Org Mode core. It 
> would sit side-by-side with the core without changing anything in its 
> code and its unit-tests.

IMHO, it is not sufficiently integrated with org-table.el facilities in
its current state. I'm afraid that we will have code duplication if
include orgtbl-fit as is.

BTW, the dollar replacement is something org-table can benefit from---a
number of people are confused because "$" is treated specially by Calc.

> Data-analysis toolkit
> ---------------------
>
>  From a higher perspective, we could give a consistent data-analysis 
> toolkit to Org Mode (and call it org-data-analysis.el).
>
> It would start with fitting, clustering & aggregation. Then, new 
> algorithms would be added upon user requests.
>
> Of course, there should be an interest among Org Mode users for such a 
> toolkit.

We can, but it should be first and foremost added to GNU Calc. On Org
side, we just need appropriate integration. Maintaining generic data
analysis code in Org is out of Org's scope.

Contributing to GNU Calc will also benefit GNU Calc users who don't use
Org mode.

-- 
Ihor Radchenko // yantar92,
Org mode contributor,
Learn more about Org mode at <https://orgmode.org/>.
Support Org development at <https://liberapay.com/org-mode>,
or support my work at <https://liberapay.com/yantar92>