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=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,4033beee35bb066 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 104ef1,f546474144fabe5b X-Google-Attributes: gid104ef1,public From: ok@goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au (Richard A. O'Keefe) Subject: Re: random number generation -> PLEASE HELP! Date: 1996/09/10 Message-ID: <5139fp$ec8@goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 179654033 references: <1996Sep5.165031@nova.wright.edu> <50tqil$1t9d@ilx018.iil.intel.com> organization: Comp Sci, RMIT, Melbourne, Australia newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal.mac,comp.lang.ada nntp-posting-user: ok Date: 1996-09-10T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Uri Raz writes: >Look at http://nr.harvard.edu/nr/ - the numerical recipes books contain > a chapter about random number generators, as well as refernces to other > books (e.g. Knuth's, which is easily accessable) about the subject. Urrrr, the Numerical Recipes books have been severely mauled in review. Their C version in particular is, well, less than idiomatic. The errata for volumes 1, 2, and 3 of The Art of Computer Programming are available: visit Knuth's Web page. Anyone seriously interested in random number generation and planning to take advice from Knuth should *definitely* read the errata to volume 2. A lot of people have implemented "Lagged Fibonacci" generators based on that book, but recently they were found to badly fail a fairly simple statistical test. This does mean that the lagged Fibonacci generator in Numerical Recipes should not be used any longer. Knuth's errata describe the problem and offer a choice of two simple fixes. The code is even in C this time, not MIX! I offer this definition: "good pseudo-random number generator: one whose fatal flaws have not yet been discovered". -- Australian citizen since 14 August 1996. *Now* I can vote the xxxs out! Richard A. O'Keefe; http://www.cs.rmit.edu.au/%7Eok; RMIT Comp.Sci.