Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: How do I get random #s?
Message-ID: <1989Feb15.213335.18135@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <19415@dhw68k.cts.com> <225800121@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu> <514@larry.UUCP> <25745@apple.Apple.COM> <1989Feb14.154157.15148@utzoo.uucp>
Date: Wed, 15 Feb 89 21:33:35 GMT

In article <1989Feb14.154157.15148@utzoo.uucp> I wrote:
>>... the standardized rand() doesn't allow a seed to be
>>specified...
>
>Please read manual before flaming about it.  The V7 rand() allowed a
>seed to be specified, as (I think) did earlier ones....

However, as has been pointed out to me in private mail, the key issue when
you want multiple streams of random numbers is not being able to specify
a seed, but being able to save the state of rand() and restore it later.
*That*, the standard rand() can't do.
-- 
The Earth is our mother;       |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
our nine months are up.        | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu