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From: Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
To: Leo <sdl.web@gmail.com>
Cc: schwab@linux-m68k.org, emacs-devel@gnu.org
Subject: Re: random doesn't feel very random
Date: Sun, 26 Aug 2012 09:12:07 -0400	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <E1T5cdL-000680-0A@fencepost.gnu.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <m1zk5iv9kb.fsf@gmail.com> (message from Leo on Sun, 26 Aug 2012 07:25:08 +0800)

    Every time I compose an email, (random t) is called. So the random
    number stream I am getting is disrupted i.e. I am no longer getting an
    uniform distribution.

If that is really true, maybe the code to set the seed needs to be
changed.  Maybe it only gives you seed values from a subset of all
those possible.

Perhaps instead of initializing the seed based on the time, it should
change the seed based on the time.  That way, all possible seeds
could occur after (random t).

--
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




  reply	other threads:[~2012-08-26 13:12 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
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 [this message]
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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