paul-buerkner/brms

feature request - functions to get and set initial values

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#883 opened on Apr 24, 2020

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 (4 comments) (2 reactions) (0 assignees)R (1,402 stars) (220 forks)batch import
featuregood first issue

Description

brms provides the helpful functions get_prior() and set_prior() to allow inspection and setting of priors

Could you kindly provide analogous functions for inspecting and setting initial values?

Contributor guide

Tech stack
None
Domain
datamachine learning
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-2 days
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
R programmingbrms packageStanBayesian statistics
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
30
Research direction
To implement get init() and set init(), first examine the existing get prior() and set prior() functions in the brms source code (likely in R/priors.R). Understand how they handle prior distributions, then apply a similar pattern for initial values. Additionally, review the Stan code generation in brms to see where initial values are set (e.g., in R/make stancode.R). Check the issue comments for any further discussion or proposed implementations.