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To: python-list@python.org
From: Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Re: Distribution
Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2012 11:29:37 -0400
Organization: > Bestiaria Support Staff <
References: <33044d51-c481-4796-a722-406f412cf994@x7g2000pbi.googlegroups.com> <877gyfmsbl.fsf@benfinney.id.au> <jk9rhh$sn9$1@dough.gmane.org>
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Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:21933

On Tue, 20 Mar 2012 12:00:50 +0000, Robert Kern <robert.kern@gmail.com>
declaimed the following in gmane.comp.python.general:

> On 3/20/12 11:21 AM, Ben Finney wrote:
> > "prince.pangeni"<prince.ram85@gmail.com>  writes:
> >
> >>     I am doing a simulation project using Python. In my project, I want
> >> to use some short of distribution to generate requests to a server.
> >
> > What is a distribution? That term already means something in Python
> > jargon, and it doesn't match the rest of your use case.
> >
> > So what do you mean by “distribution”? Maybe we can find a less
> > confusing term.
> 
> Judging from the context, he means a probability distribution.
>
	Futhermore, he explicitly mentions Poisson later in the text.

	That should just be a case of finding the mathematical definition of
the distribution and coding something using random (since the random
module has gaussian/normal, but not Poisson -- maybe numpy/simpy?) to
obtain the time variant.

	I suspect the real question is how to handle the weighted selection
of r1-r3. And for such a relatively short sample set (90 entries), the
chunked list shown previously, with randint to index into it is viable.

	The alternative, more generalized (in a way), would be to use a
sorted list of the probabilities (or sums)... (pseudo-code)

probs =	[	(numR1, r1),
				(numR1 + numR2, r2),
				(numR1 + numR2 + numR3, r3)	]
#obviously one is unlikely to actually create constants for the numRs
#more likely to create in line
probs.sort()

ran = random.randint(numR1 + numR2 + numR3)
for (p, r) in probs:
	if ran > p: continue
	theR = r
-- 
	Wulfraed                 Dennis Lee Bieber         AF6VN
        wlfraed@ix.netcom.com    HTTP://wlfraed.home.netcom.com/