[RkWard-devel] Modified and new distribution plots

[SJR]

Am Montag, 29. Januar 2007 15:22 schrieb Thomas Friedrichsmeier:
> Hi,
>
> On Monday 29 January 2007 14:34, Prasenjit Kapat wrote:
> > As promised, attached is the svn diff  patch for the modifications done
> > on distribution plots. Here is a quick summary of the changes: (they
> > refer only to  the plots under the "Distribution" menu item; NO other
> > plot/function has been tampered)
>
> I've already sent you some feedback in private mail, but we seem to have
> overlapped.
> Am I correct in assuming, that the diff you attached is exactly the same as
> what you sent to me as files? If so, the changes are already added (except
> for the menu change). If not, could you provide a new diff against an
> updated SVN tree (probably by first moving your files to a safe location,
> then running svn up, then copying them back, then running svn diff)?
>
> > ToDo?
> > --------
> > 1. For every distribution, instead of keep three menu entries (like Beta
> > probs, Beta quantiles, Plot Beta distbn.) would it be better to merge
> > them to one window but three different <tab>s under <tabbook>?
>
> We'd need to be careful not to make the plugins overly complex. I guess it
> may make sense to combine the probabilities/quantiles plugins into one,
> each, since they really do mostly the same thing. Stefan, since you wrote
> those, what's your opinion on this?

I think it's better to keep it separated.
But something that should be changed is the way how the results are presented. 
I would rather prefere a tabular output because currently the output can be 
hard to read if a vector is used as input. But this is nothing urgent.

> I guess plotting should probably remain separate, as it does need quite a
> bit of different code. Also, for the plots we may want to add further
> parameters, and the preview feature in the future, which I imagine would
> make
> a "combined" dialog rather complex (both to maintain, and to the user).
>

I totally consent here. Right now the distribution plug-ins cover more ore 
less the functionality of Rcmdr. But I guess we will provide more options in 
future than Rcmdr (please don't get the impression that I see it as a kind of 
competition. Rcmdr is just the only tool that I can use for comparison). 
Regarding the plotting it would be desireable first to introduce the new 
techniques as mentioned above by Thomas. I also think that the plug-ins would 
become "to complex" and thus prone to mistakes which will be hard to find at 
the end. If the plug-ins are feature complete we should/can reconsider this 
suggestion.

> > 2. Would it be better to rename the menu entries as just the name of the
> > distribution (like "Beta" instead of "Beta Distribution")? Or does it
> > look better as it is?
>
> Opinions anyone? I'm mostly indifferent on this, personally.

Though Rcmdr does it this way we can change it actually. I guess it's better 
to read (To be honest I tested it and must admit it is). Therefore I would 
vote for it. Let's see what the others on the list say.

@ Thomas: is there some poll functionality at sourceforge? This is a situation 
were it might be usefull (although it might mean much effort).

>
> > Now a few issues:
> > --------------------------
> > 1. The integer data type variables increments by 10s or 100s instead of
> > 1s on the <spinbox> widget of the plot dialog. Is there any
> > "default_increment" attribute to "spinbox"?
>
> No, it's supposed to pick a reasonable default automatically, but indeed
> the algorithm seems to be pretty broken. Will have to look into this.
>
> > 2. Is it possible for the "Lower tail" checkbox to be "enabled" only when
> > the "distribution function" radio is selected and "disabled" when
> > "density" function radio is selected?
>
> Yes. Add the following section to the .xml (example):
>
> <logic>
>                 <convert id="dodist" mode="equals"
> sources="function.string" standard="dbinom" />
>
>                 <connect client="lower.enabled" governor="dodist" />
> </logic>
>
> More on this:
> http://rkward.sourceforge.net/documents/devel/plugins/logic.html
>
> Thanks for your nice work!
> Thomas