Raymond Hettinger added the comment:

> I like the idea about adding a family of distribution generators

Let's stay focused on the OP's feature request for a weighted version of 
choice().

For the most part, it's not a good idea to "just add" a family of anything to 
the standard library.  We wait for user requests and use cases to guide the 
design and error on the side of less, rather than more.  This helps avoid 
bloat.   Also, it would be a good idea to start something like this as a 
third-party to module to let it iterate and mature before deciding whether 
there was sufficient user uptake to warrant inclusion in the standard library.

For the current request, we should also do some research on existing solutions 
in other languages.  This isn't new territory.  What do R, SciPy, Fortran, 
Matlab or other statistical packages already do?  Their experiences can be used 
to inform our design.  Alan Kay's big criticism of Python developers is that 
they have a strong propensity invent from scratch rather than taking advantage 
of the mountain of work done by the developers who came before them.

----------

_______________________________________
Python tracker <rep...@bugs.python.org>
<http://bugs.python.org/issue18844>
_______________________________________
_______________________________________________
Python-bugs-list mailing list
Unsubscribe: 
http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-bugs-list/archive%40mail-archive.com

Reply via email to