Re: [boost] Random

From: Matthias Troyer (troyer_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-06-25 09:41:14

On Monday, June 24, 2002, at 01:52 PM, Ian Whittley wrote:

> Hi,
>
> A quick question on random number generators. How safe is it to use the 
> value returned by one of the uniform random number generators as a 
> string of bits that can then be masked in order to provide a set of 
> values rather than just the one? I ask as it would allow for a simple 
> way of speeding up the generation of random numbers as provided by 
> uniform_smallint (and probably a few others). Even if it is unsafe in 
> any strong sense it might still be useful for many applications.
>
> Ian Whittley
> Senior Research Associate
> University of East Anglia
>
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I would strongly argue against that. Anyways the random number 
generation in most
applications is probably cheap compared to what you then do with the 
number.

Matthias Troyer