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From: "Jeffrey R. Carter" <spam.jrcarter.not@spam.not.acm.org>
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Subject: Re: New IEEE Language Popularity Ratings
Date: Sat, 6 Aug 2016 14:38:59 -0700
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Date: 2016-08-06T14:38:59-07:00
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On 08/06/2016 08:53 AM, brbarkstrom@gmail.com wrote:
> 
> Another example is random number generators.  Knuth's Art of Computer 
> Programming, Vol. 2, is the basic definitive reference.  It includes ten
> tests of a random number generator that anybody needing one should be sure
> have been used.  Park and Miller's article many years ago in CACM provides
> code for a portable version of an algorithm that they put through the Knuth
> wringer.  In my own work, I've got an Ada library for generating probability
> distributions that includes Park and Miller's algorithm, since it includes
> a test as to whether it's been implemented correctly.  I might trust the 
> algorithms in MatLab or Mathematica, but this kind of work is not for
> amateur mathematicians.

These tests, while useful, are probably badly outdated for modern algorithms on
64-bit processors. More modern tests include TestU01's Crush and Big-Crush test
suites. The Threefry generator is said to be the fastest to pass all the
Big-Crush tests.

-- 
Jeff Carter
"I've seen projects fail miserably for blindly
applying the Agile catechism: we're Agile, we
don't need to stop and think, we just go ahead
and code!"
Bertrand Meyer
150