[tor-bugs] #21588 [Metrics/Statistics]: Rewrite the censorship detector used by the Tor Metrics website in Java

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#21588: Rewrite the censorship detector used by the Tor Metrics website in Java
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 Reporter:  karsten             |          Owner:  karsten
     Type:  enhancement         |         Status:  assigned
 Priority:  Medium              |      Milestone:
Component:  Metrics/Statistics  |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal              |     Resolution:
 Keywords:  metrics-2018        |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:                      |         Points:
 Reviewer:                      |        Sponsor:
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Comment (by iwakeh):

 Regarding distribution fitting, which is currently done by scipy and used
 as part of the detector:

 Scipy didn't re-implement the functionality, but uses minpack
 (www.netlib.org/minpack).  We briefly discussed using minpack (written in
 Fortran) via JNI.  This will lead to having an additional dependency for
 debian packages 'libcminpack1' (currently installed as dependency of
 scipy) and also provide that in the java library classpath.  In addition,
 an interface would need to be created to access the used functions (hybrd,
 hybrj etc.) natively.  All in all more fragile 'plumbing' than calling
 scipy from java.

 Next steps:
 * decide, if the native access should really be implemented using Java
 * create a new package `org.torproject.metrics.math` for the functionality
 regarding distribution fitting and other advanced optimization math for
 detection and other purposes.

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/21588#comment:8>
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