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Re: random number trap [message #4983 is a reply to message #4971]

Wed, 30 August 1995 00:00

rolf
Messages: 2
Registered: August 1995

Junior Member

In article <DE33pI.G1D@hpl.hp.com>, peter@hpl.hp.com (Peter Webb) writes:
> So if you repeatedly call a procedure that
> calls randomu, the return will be the same if the calls occur within a
> second of each other, but will be different if they are in different
> seconds.
>

According to all I know about pseudo (!) random number generators,
it is crucial that the updated seed is passed on to the next call.
Even if your system clock was updated on a nanosecond basis you
would get nothing like random behaviour, but something very strictly
correlated with the execution time of your program. If interested,
read something about the theory of RNG, e.g. Numerical recipes.

Rolf

+----------------------------------------------------------- ----------------+
| Rolf P. W"urtz | mailto:rolf@cs.rug.nl | URL: http://www.cs.rug.nl/~rolf/ |
| Department of Computing Science, University of Groningen, The Netherlands |
+----------------------------------------------------------- ----------------+

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[Message index]

		Re: random number trap By: sterner on Mon, 04 September 1995 00:00
		Re: random number trap By: rolf on Wed, 30 August 1995 00:00
		Re: random number trap By: scott on Tue, 29 August 1995 00:00

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