[Numpy-discussion] Possible example application of the array interface

Bruce Southey bsouthey at gmail.com
Thu Apr 7 06:45:32 EDT 2005


Hi,
> > What statistical functions would you want in numerical python?
> 
> I think I'd want most of the standard, parametrized probability
> distributions (as well as automatic estimation from data, perhaps) and
> a handful of common statistical tests (t-test, z-test, Fishcher,
> chi-squared, what-have-you). Perhaps some support for factorial
> experiments (not sure if R has anything specific there, though).

Most of this is in SciPy already based Gary's code.  I have not looked
at it in great detail because is doesn't meet my immediate needs. One
of my major needs is to be able to handle missing values. Perhaps one
day it will handle that or I will get the time to do so.

I have been working on code with another person to do general linear
models  (along the lines of R's lm function and SAS's glm procedure)
that would address factorial and other experimental designs.  R just
doesn't do enough for me in this aspect.

Two real problems are data storage and model declaration. The mixed
model component is really only for my area and I want to use symmetric
matrices as the requirements of these models grow really fast.

I would be willing to try to address and contribute to the statistical
needs if people are interested because I prefer a 'pure python'
approach. The other way is to directly call some of the R functions
from Python since the main core of these functions are written in C
and Fortran.

> And another thing: R seems to have vary fancy (although difficult to
> use) plotting capabilities... Until SciPy catches up (it hasn't yet,
> has it? ;) that might be a reason for using R(Py) as well, I guess.
> 
> --
> Magnus Lie Hetland                    Fall seven times, stand up eight
> http://hetland.org                                  [Japanese proverb]
> 

Yeah, S/S+/R provides some nice graphs until you need to change from
the defaults.

Regards
Bruce




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