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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Path: eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Paul Rubin Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Ada.Numerics.Float_Random.Generator question Date: Fri, 30 Sep 2016 20:59:14 -0700 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Message-ID: <87bmz43ejx.fsf@jester.gateway.pace.com> References: <5db08ea5-c088-4d16-9d88-d058e4bc48df@googlegroups.com> <62fef12a-90fb-4ac8-8e59-99568b914ee7@googlegroups.com> <8bb59ac2-f5ba-44df-87ae-63d3dd47f0a3@googlegroups.com> <875ab579-a6b3-4552-b1a8-16f68da6d704@googlegroups.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Injection-Info: mx02.eternal-september.org; posting-host="590ea01354cf4bcbcd857d7ebbd88128"; logging-data="11372"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/F1GTTZYWkcIZMxMAcTr2B" User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.3 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:TbzkPKqCw9gYMVByFJM0qNum3BQ= sha1:/nOtrOAb+0vx/v3k87q9JFVQ9es= Xref: news.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:31953 Date: 2016-09-30T20:59:14-07:00 List-Id: Robert Eachus writes: >> aren't *all* PRNGs cyclic? > No, a simple counter-example is a generator that uses the digits of > pi. The digits of any transcendental number will do. I don't see how this would work--to never cycle, it would need infinite internal state. You could consider the digits of pi to be part of the state, but to count off the digits, you need a counter of infinite width. > But about how to implement it so that you don't have arbitrary pauses. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spigot_algorithm