On Sun, 1 Aug 2021 at 15:57, Gilles Sadowski <gillese...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > > 1. Remove the method > > +1 If we remove: ContinuousDistribution.probability(double) There is the option to rename ContinuousDistribution.density(double) ContinuousDistribution.logDensity(double) To probability and logProbability. This would then match the names in the DiscreteDistribution interface. Functions in Matlab use the term pdf for both discrete and continuous distributions. Functions in R use the prefix 'p' for probability. So some libraries do use the same term for both types of distribution. The javadoc can be used to distinguish the PMF [1] (discrete distributions) and PDF [2] (continuous distributions). I am not convinced by this rename. The use of density does make it clear that it is the probability density function and applies as the derivative of the CDF. Integrating the PDF must be used to obtain a probability. Wikipedia does state that the term probability function may be used in the literature for other functions leading to confusion. I would just reorder the method's occurrence in the interface to the top, matching the occurrence in the DiscreteDistribution interface. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Probability_mass_function [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Probability_density_function
