Re: random number generators for calc

I've had a look at what Gnumeric offers, and they've done a big job on
random number generation. Comparing with what is available in boost
I've separated the list into rand functions which could be quickly
implemented using boost and those which can't (and would require more
intelligence to implement). Another problem might be that boost 1.44
which is currently used in libreoffice has even fewer distribution
functions implemented.

If there's interest, I'd be happy to work on a patch to implement the
first half of the functions into
 core/sal/rtl/source/math.cxx
or maybe random.cxx? However, random.* seems not that well
maintained as there's no random.hxx.

http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_52_0/doc/html/boost_random/reference.html#boost_random.reference.distributions

gnumeric rand functions (available in boost)
--------------------------------------------
randbernoulli   random variate from a Bernoulli distribution
randbetween     a random integer number between and including bottom and
randbinom       random variate from a binomial distribution
randcauchy      random variate from a Cauchy or Lorentz distribution
randchisq       random variate from a Chi-square distribution
randdiscrete    random variate from a finite discrete distribution
randexp         random variate from an exponential distribution
randfdist       random variate from an F distribution
randgamma       random variate from a Gamma distribution
randgeom        random variate from a geometric distribution
randlognorm     random variate from a lognormal distribution
randnegbinom    random variate from a negative binomial distribution
randnorm        random variate from a normal distribution
randpoisson     random variate from a Poisson distribution
randtdist       random variate from a Student t distribution
randuniform     random variate from the uniform distribution from a to b
randweibull     random variate from a Weibull distribution


gnumeric rand functions (not available in boost)
------------------------------------------------
randbeta        random variate from a Beta distribution
randexppow      random variate from an exponential power distribution
randgumbel      random variate from a Gumbel distribution
randhyperg      random variate from a hypergeometric distribution
randlandau      random variate from the Landau distribution
randlaplace     random variate from a Laplace distribution
randlevy        random variate from a Levy distribution
randlog         random variate from a logarithmic distribution
randlogistic    random variate from a logistic distribution
randnormtail    random variate from the uppertail of a normal distribution
randpareto      random variate from a Pareto distribution
randrayleigh    random variate from a Rayleigh distribution
randrayleightail        random variate from the tail of a Rayleigh distri
randsnorm       random variate from a skew normal distribution
randstdist      random variate from a skew t distribution