[R-SIG-Mac] generate distributions

[Carl Witthoft]

Well, let's be careful :-).  True, there are numerical methods
(transforms and such ) for a limited set of distribution functions.

But, given huge amounts of computer time,  the uniform distribution can 
be mapped to any user-defined curve by using simple 
weighting/clustering.  No argument that this is a poor way to generate a 
realistic set of data.


> Please ask such non-Mac-specific questions on R-help.
> 
> For 'arbitrary', no.  But there are lots of helpers, including 
> Runuran, SuppDists and distrSim, which cover lots of univariate 
> distribtutions.  There are lots of multivariate ones implemented too,
>  often in packages that make use of MCMC.  But you cannot even define
> an arbitrary distribution in a unified way.
>