Re: boost::normal_distribution<>(boost::mt19937) changed behavior from 1.60 to 1.80

From: Alexander Grund (alexander.grund_at_[hidden])
Date: 2023-07-18 13:52:31

Am 18.07.23 um 14:18 schrieb Foelsche, Peter via Boost:
> I'm not certain if the behavior I'm seeing is expected or a problem.
>
> I'm getting different series of numbers from the two different boost versions in question.

The change is actually in Boost 1.64 which "improved the normal 
distribution" with 
https://github.com/boostorg/random/commit/c7d1b4f3516098b3e2fc8f8531d716881ab5834e
Discussion is in https://github.com/boostorg/random/pull/23

Other seem to have noticed the changed behavior too: 
https://github.com/stan-dev/math/pull/601

Steven has to determine whether this is a regression or an 
(semi-)intended side effect.
But AFAIK random number generators/distributions are not guaranteed to 
generate the same numbers using different versions of the library.

Alex