[RsR] Data generation from Laplace distribution in R

[Martin Maechler]

>>>>> "DK" == khanx131  <khanx131 using umn.edu>
>>>>>     on 15 Nov 2008 20:45:52 -0600 writes:

    DK> Hi, Everyone, I have problem in data generation using
    DK> Laplace distribution. i tried "rlaplace()" in VGAM
    DK> package but when i install this package then
    DK> predict(lm(...)) and resid(lm(...)) etc does not
    DK> work. please let me know if anyone who know how to deal
    DK> with it, and generate Laplace data. it would be greatly
    DK> appreciated. thanks in advance,

Hmm, yes, I see

 > library(VGAM)
 Loading required package: splines
 Loading required package: stats4

 Attaching package: 'VGAM'


	 The following object(s) are masked from package:splines :

	  bs,
	  ns 


	 The following object(s) are masked from package:graphics :

	  persp 


	 The following object(s) are masked from package:stats :

	  biplot,
	  coefficients,
	  deviance,
	  df.residual,
	  effects,
	  fitted,
	  fitted.values,
	  poly,
	  predict,
	  resid,
	  residuals,
	  weights 


	 The following object(s) are masked from package:base :

	  identity,
	  scale.default 

 > 
----------------------

This indeed a pretty startling sign, and I would indeed be
reluctant to use VGAM  for the time being, myself.
I got acquainted with Thomas Yee, the VGAM author, and have
known him as a very smart person.  But these maskings of
standard R functions are really not a good idea.
[Thomas: We should communicate privately in order to get a
	 better solution for VGAM]

But for rlaplace(),  as Murray has just replied I see,
that is really just an exponential with a random sign.
Thomas'  rlaplace()  is just a "better" insofar as it nicely computes one
Laplace variate from one uniform.
So you can do something like :

   library(VGAM)
   Rlaplace <- rlaplace
   detach("package:VGAM")
   rlaplace <- Rlaplace

A slightly more interesting problem is the generalization of
yours:
Generate Huber_c distributed variates ...

Martin