Date:	Thu, 1 Oct 1998 21:17:11 +0300 (IDT)
From:	Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
X-Sender:	eliz AT is
To:	Kbwms AT aol DOT com
cc:	dj AT delorie DOT com, djgpp-workers AT delorie DOT com
Subject:	Re: Proposed New Random
In-Reply-To:	<4ed1b56c.3611007e@aol.com>
Message-ID:	<Pine.SUN.3.91.981001211647.18395Q-100000@is>
MIME-Version:	1.0

On Tue, 29 Sep 1998 Kbwms AT aol DOT com wrote:

> I might be able to make a contribution here.  Recently, I completed a
> paper on combined random number generators, "Quick and Portable Random
> Number Generators," with Dr. Gerald P. Dwyer, formerly with Clemson
> University and now at the Atlanta Fed.  The supporting random number
> generator is very well behaved and has a period of about 2^62.  This
> is certainly long enough to outlive the expected life of the universe.

First, we need to be sure this code can be freely distributed under
DJ's license.  Sometimes universities are picky about this and might
require some blurb like what BSD did--which will return us back to
square one.

And second, one of the most valuable features of `random' is that all
its bits, inluding the LSB's, are random, so you could get a random
bit with "random() % 2".  Does your algorithm have this feature?

- Raw text -