From:	Erik Max Francis <max AT alcyone DOT com>
Newsgroups:	comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject:	Re: Newbie Question: Random Numbers
Date:	Wed, 06 Aug 1997 01:46:27 -0700
Organization:	Alcyone Systems
Lines:	19
Message-ID:	<33E839E3.38A0E28D@alcyone.com>
References:	<01bc9a61$57701640$204678c7 AT warren1>
NNTP-Posting-Host:	newton.alcyone.com
Mime-Version:	1.0
To:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com
DJ-Gateway:	from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp

Warren Smith wrote:

> How can I get a truly random number (w/o the same sequence of numbers
> appearing over and over)?

This is fundamentally impossible with a computer without some strange
peripherals, because computers are designed to be deterministic.

There are many, many books written about "pseudorandom numbers," as
they'er called.  There's a whole chapter (chapter 7) in _Numerical
recipes_, for instance, devoted to this subject.

-- 
       Erik Max Francis, &tSftDotIotE / email / mailto:max AT alcyone DOT com
                     Alcyone Systems /   web / http://www.alcyone.com/max/
San Jose, California, United States /  icbm / 37 20 07 N  121 53 38 W
                                   \
   "Love is not love which alters / when it alteration finds."
                                 / William Shakespeare, _Sonnets_, 116

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