From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,FROM_NUMERIC_TLD autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,c7fc42d2c6a0eedc X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-04-04 04:34:28 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!panix!newsfeed.mathworks.com!nntp.abs.net!lore.csc.com!baen1673807.greenlnk.net!baen1673807!not-for-mail From: Stuart Palin Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Ada2005 random Date: Fri, 04 Apr 2003 13:11:29 +0100 Organization: Computer Sciences Corporation Message-ID: <3E8D7671.AD3CD6A1@0.0> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: 20.44.241.70 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: lore.csc.com 1049458294 8800 20.44.241.70 (4 Apr 2003 12:11:34 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@news.csc.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 4 Apr 2003 12:11:34 +0000 (UTC) X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (WinNT; I) X-Accept-Language: en X-Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: rc2966.rochstr.gmav.gecm.com X-Original-Trace: 4 Apr 2003 13:09:47 GMT, rc2966.rochstr.gmav.gecm.com Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:35923 Date: 2003-04-04T13:11:29+01:00 List-Id: Dale Stanbrough wrote: > How about > > for i in reverse 8..2 loop > > put (random (blah) mod i); > > end loop; Of the many problems with this bit of code, perhaps the most serious is the bias it introduces to the randomness. Consider if random returned a value 0..10, then taking the result mod 8 would give 2 ways of getting 0..2 but only one way of getting 3..7. Similar skew exist for other cases (except 5). -- Stuart Palin