From: Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
To: Leo <sdl.web@gmail.com>
Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org
Subject: Re: random doesn't feel very random
Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2012 18:48:10 -0400 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <E1T52fi-0003JU-HH@fencepost.gnu.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <m27gsoiyxu.fsf@gmail.com> (message from Leo on Fri, 24 Aug 2012 14:30:53 +0800)
That is probably because we have only one global random state and many
packages reset it from time to time (see message-unique-id).
Why would extra invocations of (random t) cause repetitive behavior?
Ideally we should call (random t) only once or allow multiple random
states.
Supporting multiple random seeds would be a natural thing to do
if there is some advantage in sticking with one random seed
for a particular purpose, or if there is some harm in doing
(random t) extra times. But what reason could there be for that?
Except studying the pseudorandom number generator, that is.
--
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation
51 Franklin St
Boston MA 02110
USA
www.fsf.org www.gnu.org
Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software.
Use Ekiga or an ordinary phone call
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2012-08-24 22:48 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 43+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2012-08-24 5:47 random doesn't feel very random Ivan Kanis
2012-08-24 6:22 ` Tassilo Horn
2012-08-24 17:19 ` random doesn't feel very random, random doesn't feel very random, " Ivan Kanis
2012-08-24 18:50 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2012-08-25 7:46 ` Ivan Kanis
2012-08-24 6:30 ` Leo
2012-08-24 22:48 ` Richard Stallman [this message]
2012-08-24 22:57 ` Andreas Schwab
2012-08-25 20:55 ` Richard Stallman
2012-08-25 23:25 ` Leo
2012-08-26 13:12 ` Richard Stallman
2012-08-26 14:24 ` Achim Gratz
2012-08-26 23:22 ` Leo
2012-08-27 0:50 ` Stefan Monnier
2012-08-27 6:31 ` Simon Leinen
2012-08-27 3:41 ` Richard Stallman
2012-08-27 4:48 ` Stefan Monnier
2012-08-31 9:41 ` Eli Zaretskii
2012-08-31 15:06 ` Stefan Monnier
2012-08-31 15:23 ` chad
2012-08-31 17:50 ` Eli Zaretskii
2012-08-31 19:43 ` Stefan Monnier
2012-09-01 1:18 ` Paul Eggert
2012-09-01 7:19 ` Achim Gratz
2012-09-01 13:19 ` Paul Eggert
2012-09-04 19:19 ` Nix
2012-09-04 20:07 ` Paul Eggert
2012-09-04 20:11 ` Nix
2012-09-02 12:27 ` Jason Rumney
2012-09-02 13:08 ` Stefan Monnier
2012-09-01 7:22 ` Ivan Kanis
2012-09-01 11:13 ` joakim
2012-08-31 23:04 ` Leo
2012-08-27 5:17 ` Achim Gratz
2012-08-31 9:42 ` Eli Zaretskii
2012-08-31 15:07 ` Stefan Monnier
2012-08-31 17:50 ` Eli Zaretskii
2012-08-26 9:06 ` Ivan Kanis
2012-08-24 7:03 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2012-08-24 9:10 ` Paul Eggert
2012-08-24 17:45 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2012-08-24 12:45 ` OT: appropriateness of "random" for playlist generation (was: random doesn't feel very random) Jeremiah Dodds
2012-08-24 14:37 ` random doesn't feel very random Drew Adams
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