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Quality of rand()

Can any tell me why rand() is such a bad pseudo-random number generator.
In all the articles I have read they say that you can predict the outcome
of rand() but when I used its output with NIST's random number testsuite
it passed all of the tests thrown at it for randomness. Can anyone
suggest a test I could use that it would fail? A pointer to a suitable
article would be appreciated.

Thanks for your help in advance,

Tom

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Using M2, Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/
Jul 22 '05
11 4225
AngleWyrm writes:
One of the problems with the standard implementation of rand() is that on
most systems it uses a fast formula called Linear Congruential.


But there IS NO STANDARD implementation of rand(). It is the name of a
FUNCTION, not an ALGORITHM!!!

Jul 22 '05 #11
"osmium" <r1********@com cast.net> wrote in message
news:2o******** ****@uni-berlin.de...
AngleWyrm writes:
One of the problems with the standard implementation of rand() is that on most systems it uses a fast formula called Linear Congruential.


But there IS NO STANDARD implementation of rand(). It is the name of a
FUNCTION, not an ALGORITHM!!!


You don't program much, do you?

http://home.comcast.net/~anglewyrm/hat.html
Jul 22 '05 #12

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