[Python-ideas] random.boolean or bernoulli

[M.-A. Lemburg]

Robert Kern wrote:
> On 4/21/11 1:46 PM, Raymond Hettinger wrote:
> 
>> P.S. Bernoulli isn't even jargon; it's a person's name.
>> A Bernoulli trial just means that events are independent.
>> It doesn't imply anything about a distribution or population
>> of possible result values.
> 
> Actually, it is the canonical name of a particular discrete probability
> distribution. *If* one cared to add it, it would be a perfectly fine
> name for it, though "bernoullivariate" might fit better with the other
> named distributions.
> 
>   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernoulli_distribution
> 

I don't think those suggested functions are really missing from the
random module.

Distributions that are missing (at least AFAIK) are these two
important discrete distributions:

One which returns integers distributed according to the
binomial distribution B(n,p):

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binomial_distribution

(The Bernoulli distribution is a special case (B(1,p)).)

The other important discrete distribution missing is the Poisson
distribution Pois(lambda):

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisson_distribution

Both are often used in simulations and test data generators
for real world discrete events.

In the past we've used Ivan Frohne's fine rv module for these,
but it would be great if they could be added to the standard
random module (taking benefit of the much better performance
this provides):

    http://svn.scipy.org/svn/scipy/tags/pre_numeric/Lib/stats/rv.py

Perhaps a nice project for a GSoC student...

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
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