anthony@utcsstat.UUCP (01/10/85)
In regards to an earlier message by Greg Dudek with respect to random number generation being dependent on I/O delays, and that my criticism is especially inapplicable in the context of games, I would like to raise two points. First, games that use a JOYSTICK necessitate that the user not provide any keyboard input - hence my criticism is still valid. Secondly, the random number generator is NOT dependent on I/O delays and this can be shown to be true easily by executing the following sequence of instructions: 1. boot-up and type PRINT RND(1) 2. boot-up again, press some keys (to give the I/O delay counter a new value) and then type PRINT RND(1) Both steps above will yield the same random number. On my machine, this is 0.87..... Thus, the supposedly pseudo-random numbers are reprod- ucible - a much desired characteristic !!!! -- Anthony Ayiomamitis Dept Prev Medicine & Biostatistics Faculty of Medicine University of Toronto Toronto, Canada M5S 2T1 {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!utcsstat!anthony {ihnp4|decvax|utzoo|utcsrgv}!utcs!utzoo!utcsstat!anthony