From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Richard Stallman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: random doesn't feel very random Date: Sun, 26 Aug 2012 09:12:07 -0400 Message-ID: References: <876288yh72.fsf@kanis.fr> Reply-To: rms@gnu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15 X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1345986738 17190 80.91.229.3 (26 Aug 2012 13:12:18 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 26 Aug 2012 13:12:18 +0000 (UTC) Cc: schwab@linux-m68k.org, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Leo Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sun Aug 26 15:12:19 2012 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1T5cdW-0003Sk-S7 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sun, 26 Aug 2012 15:12:18 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:44420 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1T5cdU-0005M4-Sh for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sun, 26 Aug 2012 09:12:16 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:49039) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1T5cdN-0005HI-7U for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 26 Aug 2012 09:12:14 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1T5cdM-0005HT-CR for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 26 Aug 2012 09:12:09 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([208.118.235.10]:58680) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1T5cdM-0005HP-9F for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 26 Aug 2012 09:12:08 -0400 Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1T5cdL-000680-0A; Sun, 26 Aug 2012 09:12:07 -0400 In-reply-to: (message from Leo on Sun, 26 Aug 2012 07:25:08 +0800) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 3) X-Received-From: 208.118.235.10 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:152847 Archived-At: 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