Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: rand on 4d broken
Message-ID: <1989Jun27.224023.335@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <1551@cs-spool.calgary.UUCP> <165@odin.SGI.COM>
Date: Tue, 27 Jun 89 22:40:23 GMT

In article <165@odin.SGI.COM> andru@rhialto.sgi.com (Andrew Myers) writes:
>	... UNIX rand() is well known to
>	be an extremely poor random number generator...

In fairness, the *original* Version 7 rand() wasn't too bad.  Not great,
but not bad.  It was a 32-bit generator that returned the *upper* 16 bits
to avoid the rather non-random behavior of the low-order bits.  Alas, many
of the people who messed with it later didn't appreciate this subtlety.
-- 
NASA is to spaceflight as the  |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
US government is to freedom.   | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu