Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!xylogics!transfer!lectroid!jjmhome!m2c!umvlsi!dime!dime.cs.umass.edu!moss From: moss@ibis.cs.umass.edu (Eliot Moss) Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk Subject: Re: Random Number Generators Message-ID: Date: 7 Mar 90 14:24:13 GMT References: <1030@ucl-cs.UUCP> Sender: news@dime.cs.umass.edu Reply-To: Moss@cs.umass.edu Organization: Dept of Comp and Info Sci, Univ of Mass (Amherst) Lines: 18 In-reply-to: J.Pearce@ucl-cs.UUCP's message of 2 Mar 90 10:37:29 GMT Actually, I recommend going back the CACM articles in 1988 and 1989. There were several about random number generators. The one that was *not* the "minimal standard" is probably better. It is based on using two, good, linear congruential generators with periods not having a common factor to get large period. THere was demonstration of its quality and some comparison with other generators, including pictures showing patterns produced by graphing the generators' numbers against time, etc. Perhaps someone more energetic (or with the CACM's handy (I'm at home just now)) can post the complete reference. It was pretty easy to implement in C (or Pascal); should be easy in Smalltalk, too. Eliot -- J. Eliot B. Moss, Assistant Professor Department of Computer and Information Science Lederle Graduate Research Center University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA 01003 (413) 545-4206; Moss@cs.umass.edu