Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcvax!ukc!warwick!bsrdp
From: bsrdp@warwick.ac.uk (Hylton Boothroyd)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: An oddity with looz and turbo pascal's random
Summary: Fixed result from looz xx zoohive rndname
Keywords: zoo, looz, turbo pascal, random
Message-ID: <3008@sol.warwick.ac.uk>
Date: 22 Jun 89 20:12:44 GMT
Reply-To: bsrdp@warwick.ac.uk (Hylton Boothroyd)
Organization: Warwick Business School
Lines: 30

A couple of years ago I wrote a short turbo pascal 3 programme to generate
8-character random alpha strings.

I've just been surprised by the result of putting a copy in a .ZOO and
running it under MSDOS 3.20 on an XT clone. Using
	   looz xx zoohive rndname
I get the same string each time:
	   kkiioriv .

Giving the programme a different name and putting it in a different .ZOO
yields the same string!

The command works OK at DOS command level - or more strictly at the DOS/CED
command level that one of Rahul's remarks nudged me towards.

The odd behaviour of this one programme is not important to me in itself. I
just happened to use it as an example in testing out a set of command
structures.  What disturbs me is that I can't see why it might happen, and I
therefore can't guess the class of circumstances in which there might be
changed behaviour.

Any comments?

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Hylton Boothroyd        Janet: h.boothroyd@uk.ac.warwick.cu
Warwick Business School Darpa: h.boothroyd%cu.warwick.ac.uk@relay-nsfnet.ac.uk
University of Warwick   Uucp:  h.boothroyd%sol@warwick.uucp
COVENTRY                Earn/Bitnet: h.boothroyd%uk.ac.warwick.cu@UKACRL
England  CV4 7AL        Phone: +44 203 523523  Extension 2428
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