Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!wuarchive!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!ubc-cs!alberta!herald.usask.ca!news From: reeves@dvinci (Malcolm Reeves) Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer Subject: Re: Random Numbers Message-ID: <1991Mar2.201214.22848@herald.usask.ca> Date: 2 Mar 91 20:12:14 GMT References: Sender: news@herald.usask.ca (USENET News System) Reply-To: reeves@dvinci.usask.ca Distribution: comp Organization: University of Saskatchewan Lines: 21 Nntp-Posting-Host: dvinci.usask.ca (1) Must the generator be able to produce an identical sequence on request? (2) Must the code be portable from machine to machine and give the same results? (3) What tests of randomness must the numbers pass? (4) What distribution do you want the numbers to have? For an introductory review see "Numerical Recipes" chapter 7. If you want code there are some examples in Fortran, Pascal and C (depending on which version of Numerical Recipes you get). Numerical Recipes is a book by Press, Flannery, Teukolsky and Vettering published by Cambridge University Press (no one should be without a copy). If you want more information on random number generation there are lots of texts. I know just enough about random number generation to understand that it is a much studied subject with which I am only slightly familiar. Others may be able to give you detailed technical advice if you explain the problem you are trying to solve. Malcolm D xxxxxx