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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!don
From: don@allegra.UUCP (D. Mitchell)
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
Subject: random() is not
Message-ID: <2416@allegra.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 16-Apr-84 17:55:50 EST
Article-I.D.: allegra.2416
Posted: Mon Apr 16 17:55:50 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 17-Apr-84 07:32:28 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Lines: 6

The random() function in the 4.2 release is quite poor.  It failed some
statistical tests that we did here, so we looked at the code and found
some subtle bugs.  What it is trying to do is sound, but the author
tried to be clever with pointers and messed up.  It is not, in fact,
evaluating the polynomial that is claimed in the little TV commercial
at the beginning of the source.