Date: Sun, 12 Oct 1997 14:00:26 +0200 (IST)
From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
To: Nate Eldredge <eldredge AT ap DOT net>
cc: Antonio Dias <accdias AT provider DOT com DOT br>, djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: Random numbers again...
In-Reply-To: <199710100003.RAA14864@adit.ap.net>
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.971012140004.8447G-100000@is>
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On Thu, 9 Oct 1997, Nate Eldredge wrote:

> rand() and random() both generate random numbers, in fact
> they are the same code under DJGPP.
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Certainly NOT!!  The code of `rand' and `random' is entirely
different.

Even when `random' operates in its type-zero mode (and uses a linear
congruental method similar to that of `rand'), it uses different
constants, so the numbers come out different.

But the default mode of `random' is type-3, whereby it employs the
linear feedback shift register method.  This is vastly superior to
`rand'; in particular, the LSBs output by `random' are much more
random than those produced by `rand'.