From:	"John M. Aldrich" <fighteer AT cs DOT com>
Newsgroups:	comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject:	Re: How to limit a random() with DJGPP ?
Date:	Sat, 07 Feb 1998 12:43:07 -0500
Organization:	Two pounds of chaos and a pinch of salt.
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Message-ID:	<34DC9D2B.3396@cs.com>
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To:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com
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Paul Derbyshire wrote:
> 
> Your best bet, actually, would be to use (random()>>4)%10, for instance,
> to discard the low four bits, which are usually less random than the rest
> of the pseudo-random number and which make this known when %ing by small
> quantities.

While DJGPP's rand() library function suffers from this problem,
random() uses a better algorithm that does not.  This is an example of
why it's not a good idea to depend on built-in random number generators
if you are writing code that depends on having as much "randomness" as
possible.

-- 
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|      John M. Aldrich       | "If 'everybody knows' such-and-such, |
|       aka Fighteer I       | then it ain't so, by at least ten    |
|   mailto:fighteer AT cs DOT com   | thousand to one."                    |
| http://www.cs.com/fighteer |                 - Lazarus Long       |
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