docs: def generate_params(n_items, interval=5.0, ordered=False):
      r"""Generate random model parameters.
  
      This function samples a parameter independently and uniformly for each
      item. ``interval`` defines the width of the uniform distribution.
  
      Parameters
      ----------
      n_items : int
          Number of distinct items.
      interval : float
          Sampling interval.
      ordered : bool, optional
          If true, the parameters are ordered from lowest to highest.
  
      Returns
      -------
      params : numpy.ndarray
         Model parameters.
      """
      params = np.random.uniform(low=0, high=interval, size=n_items)
      if ordered:
          params.sort()
      return params - params.mean()