open-psa/mef

Piecewise Linear Distribution

rakhimov opened this issue · 1 comments

The specification of the Histogram distribution suggests
converting Cumulative distribution to its corresponding probability density histogram.
The approach is cumbersome
if one considers transferring the output of one analysis as input to another.

The piecewise linear distribution provides more general/flexible facility
to express cumulative and other distributions.
It could also be used to approximate continuous/complex distributions if needed
as an alternative to the histogram distribution.

However, if the piecewise linear distribution is not dedicated to cumulative distributions only,
the dual role (pdf and cdf) for the same construct is ambiguous.
The MEF can specify a special attribute for this distribution
to discern between the distribution types (density vs. cumulative).

The cumulative to density conversion can be achieved with the current curve feature in report layer.
The tools can do the cumbersome job of conversion.
This approach would free the piecewise-linear distribution from the ambiguity and double role.