[MATH-764] New sample() API should accept RandomGenerator as parameter

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 3.0
• Fix Version/s: 3.1
• Assignee: Gilles Sadowski
• Reporter: Alex Bertram
• Created: 07/Mar/12 09:07
• Updated: 04/Mar/13 18:53
• Resolved: 20/Jul/12 00:47

Description

This may come to late as I know the 3.0 release is nearing completion, but I had some concerns about the new sample() method on the math3 RealDistribution interface.
Specifically, there doesn't seem to be a way to supply a random generator to the sampler. Perhaps it would be better to have a factory method on the RealDistribution interface that accepted a RandomGenerator and returns an instance of some new interface, Sampler, which contains the sample() methods.
That is:

interface RealDistribution {
Sampler createSampler(RandomGenerator generator);
Sample createSampler(); // uses default RandomGenerator
}

interface Sampler {
double sample();
double[] sample(int sampleSize);
}

Issue Links

• relates to: MATH-823 Distribution classes should allow randomData to be configured via constructor or setter