@hackage maxent0.4.0.0

Compute Maximum Entropy Distributions

The maximum entropy method, or MAXENT, is variational approach for computing probability distributions given a list of moment, or expected value, constraints.

Here are some links for background info.

A good overview of applications: http://cmm.cit.nih.gov/maxent/letsgo.html

On the idea of maximum entropy in general: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_maximum_entropy

Use this package to compute discrete maximum entropy distributions over a list of values and list of constraints.

Here is a the example from Probability the Logic of Science

>>>

The classic dice example

>>>

One can use different constraints besides the average value there.

As for why you want to maximize the entropy to find the probability constraint, I will say this for now. In the case of the average constraint it is a kin to choosing a integer partition with the most interger compositions. I doubt that makes any sense, but I will try to explain more with a blog post soon.