Date: Wed, 5 Nov 1997 11:46:30 +0200 (IST)
From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
To: Nate Eldredge <eldredge AT ap DOT net>
cc: eblazecka AT bc DOT sympatico DOT ca, djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: rand() or random()
In-Reply-To: <199711050219.SAA15044@adit.ap.net>
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.971105114611.460F-100000@is>
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On Tue, 4 Nov 1997, Nate Eldredge wrote:

> I just wonder why ANSI
> programs get punished by having to use the worse generator, while
> incompatible BSD-isms are rewarded.

This doesn't have to be so.  If we have a good free RNG, we could
replace `rand'.  Writing a good RNG is not a trivial matter, but
there's a lot of literature on the subject, including algorithms and
public-domain code, out there.  It shouldn't take somebody who knows
about the subject matter more than a few days of work to come up with
a reasonably good version.

Any takers?