Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ketch.cis.ohio-state.edu!martens From: martens@ketch.cis.ohio-state.edu (Jeff Martens) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech Subject: Random #s (was Re: ARexx psuedo-random number generator) Keywords: ARexx Random Number Generator Message-ID: <60483@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Date: 13 Sep 89 09:56:45 GMT References: <19504@unix.cis.pitt.edu> <1989Sep13.032352.10321@agate.berkeley.edu> Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Reply-To: Jeff Martens Organization: Ohio State University Computer and Information Science Lines: 26 In article <1989Sep13.032352.10321@agate.berkeley.edu> mwm@eris.berkeley.edu (Mike (I'll think of something yet) Meyer) writes: :As a general rule, serious applications should never use the random :number generator provided with a language. You should either use one :from a "known-good" library (i.e. - IMSL, if there's a random number :generator in it), or roll your own. Rolling your own can be done in an :afternoon, including chasing down and reading the references. Knuth's :"The Art of Computer Programming" vol. 2 - "Seminumerical Algorithms" :- is the canonical reference, and has lots of theory plus various :algorithms for testing random-number generators. R. G. Dromey's "How :to Solve It By Computer" (part of the Prentice-Hall International :Series in CS, edited by C.A.R. Hoare) extracts the important part for :the do-it-yourselfer into a few pages that describe the best algorithm :from Knuth, what the parameters are, and how to choose them. Another good (and easy to find) reference for random number generation is Park and Miller, "Random Number Generators: Good Ones are Hard to Find," CACM, 10/88. Also, most simulation texts discuss random number generation in one fashion or another, but a lot of them settle on truly horrible generators. -=- -- Jeff (martens@cis.ohio-state.edu) Ever seen a sparrow stall?