From: ao950 AT FreeNet DOT Carleton DOT CA (Paul Derbyshire)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Re: Newbie Question: Random Numbers
Date: 7 Aug 1997 06:44:25 GMT
Organization: The National Capital FreeNet
Lines: 26
Message-ID: <5sbqs9$jrj@freenet-news.carleton.ca>
References: <01bc9a61$57701640$204678c7 AT warren1> <33E839E3 DOT 38A0E28D AT alcyone DOT com>
Reply-To: ao950 AT FreeNet DOT Carleton DOT CA (Paul Derbyshire)
NNTP-Posting-Host: freenet3.carleton.ca
To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
DJ-Gateway: from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Precedence: bulk


Erik Max Francis (max AT alcyone DOT com) writes:
> 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.

A URL would be nice. (Preferably for the main page, chapter 7 is probably
easily tracked down from there.) Just the name of a site or document by
itself isn't helpful, because it has to be put into a search engine which
will find ten thousand irrelevant sites. Mostly commercial sites. I think
that most of the search engines accept money under the table from big
companies to make their sites pop up at the top of every search someone
does that is in any way slightly connected to their products. :P
--
    .*.  Where feelings are concerned, answers are rarely simple [GeneDeWeese]
 -()  <  When I go to the theater, I always go straight to the "bag and mix"
    `*'  bulk candy section...because variety is the spice of life... [me]
Paul Derbyshire ao950 AT freenet DOT carleton DOT ca, http://chat.carleton.ca/~pderbysh