[mtzet]

> Gauss quite openly admitted that the choice was borne out of convenience.

That's quite interesting. Do you have a reference for that?

From my understanding, the popularity of the least squares method came (at least in part) from Gauss' successful prediction of the position of Ceres. Was this just because people not using least squares were not able to calculate it?

[riskneural]

It's in the original paper in which he derives the normal distribution. Well worth a read. I last had a copy of it in the fourth basement down in the university library about fifteen years ago - it might be still there.

[srean]

I have come across his quote about convenience in many places, but don't have a specific reference. Perhaps The Google can help.

The other useful resource is "The Unicorn, The Normal Curve, And Other Improbable Creatures"