From: Charles Krug Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp Subject: Re: DJGPP's random functions. Date: Mon, 05 Apr 1999 09:40:23 -0400 Organization: Pentek Corporation Lines: 27 Message-ID: <3708BD47.D114C165@pentek.com> References: <3705018e AT news DOT ismi DOT net> NNTP-Posting-Host: mail.pentek.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (WinNT; U) X-Accept-Language: en To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com DJ-Gateway: from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com Ike Gingerich wrote: > I noticed that the functions that come with DJGPP for generating random numbers always spit out the random numbers in >the same sequence each time the program is run. Ike: What you're seeing is a consequence of using a computer. In general, this is, in fact a Very Good Thing (tm). Most of us first encounter pseudo random numbers in the context of rolling dice or some such thing. To us at that time, we see the deterministic pattern of p-random numbers as "bad." However, this is not the case. Suppose that you are doing an AI to play Blackjack. How do you know how well it does, in comparison to your previous versions? The best way is to feed the various versions the same shoe (usually 8 decks of cards), which you generate by (surprise) using the system's p-random generator. That way, you can compare your simulation using a predictable dataset, so that you can make meaningful comparisons regarding performance. Charles