Simple Statistics: Statistical methods in JavaScript for browsers and servers | Hacker News Reader

Simple Statistics: Statistical methods in JavaScript for browsers and servers

simple-statistics.github.io

91 pointsfavourable7 comments

I applaud the effort, but I would suggest a different code style if the aim is to make it as friendly and simple as possible.

Specifically, comments every other line quickly add up and take up valuable space. Some, like the one above `sumOfSquares` are, in my opinion, unnecessary. It's obvious from the variable name and that `for` loop what's going on there.

My experience is that the best way to make equations legible is to use their matrix form - matrices are easy to explain to anyone who can add and multiply.

I'm currently in a project that's built around a few calculations and we settled on matrices because it's a language that every team member, from the project owners to developers, understands.

Matrices explain what a function does “literally” (it’s basically a mathematical equivalent to the function itself) but not the why. Comments are probably still needed.

I’m going to disagree. Even code that makes sense when read is easier to read in human language reading through comments. Especially if you’re looking for an area of code you’re not very familiar with.

Comments are basically free in most languages. Use them.

This project is nice enough, but I wonder what is the point of some of the simpler functions.

The maxSorted function for example is as trivial as it gets: https://github.com/simple-statistics/simple-statistics/blob/... It would be actually simpler for everyone without the abstraction.

This was the first open-source library I ever contributed to.

Tom was super nice and way more helpful than he needed to be. Class act and great programmer/blogger: https://macwright.com/

I reimplemented part of this, from the Python version, in Swift a couple years ago.

https://github.com/melling/SimpleStatistics

Sometimes, this is all you need. I like it.

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