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From: andrew@frip.WV.TEK.COM (Andrew Klossner)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.d,comp.sources.games.bugs
Subject: rand()
Message-ID: <5814@orca.wv.tek.com>
Date: 9 Jan 90 22:39:10 GMT
References: <815@stealth.acf.nyu.edu> <2597@cunixc.cc.columbia.edu> <2434@stealth.acf.nyu.edu>
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[]

	"It's generally safe to use rand() modulo various small
	numbers, even for linear congruential sequences; unless those
	small numbers are all powers of two and you're very unlucky,
	the small period of rand()'s low-order bits won't affect
	anything."

I vehemently disagree.  It's generally unsafe to generate a linear
congruential sequence, then take the elements modulo various small
numbers.

This is discussed in the standard reference:  Knuth volume II.

  -=- Andrew Klossner   (uunet!tektronix!frip.WV.TEK!andrew)    [UUCP]
                        (andrew%frip.wv.tek.com@relay.cs.net)   [ARPA]