>    As far as I can tell from the doc strings, the user level funcionality
   >    of the two is the same.  If there is a difference, I can't tell it from
   >    those doc strings.  But they compute values in different ways
   > 
   >    If there is no significant user-visible difference, could the two be merged?
   > 
   > cl-random allows you to specify the seed, while random does not

   random does allow to specify the seed:

     random is a built-in function in ‘src/fns.c’.

     (random &optional LIMIT)

     Return a pseudo-random integer.
     By default, return a fixnum; all fixnums are equally likely.
     With positive integer LIMIT, return random integer in interval [0,LIMIT).
     With argument t, set the random number seed from the system’s entropy
     pool if available, otherwise from less-random volatile data such as the time.
     With a string argument, set the seed based on the string’s contents.
     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Missed that, but doesn't that mean that using a limit _and_ a seed is
not possible?