Dan Nagle wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> José Rui Faustino de Sousa wrote:
>
> > Hi list!
> >
> > About random_number... If the seed is not set with random_seed it is
> > then automatically set to a processor dependent value... So it will give
> > the same results in the same processor and most likely different results
> > in different processors...
> >
>
> Unless the processor sets the seed according to the clock...
>
> Moral: always record your seed in the output, so you can
> reproduce a given run.
>
Old war story follows; delete if you're busy. Many years ago the
U of XXXX computer science department produced a computer
randomized test for one of their big classes. The questions were
in different random orders for each student and the multiple choice
answers were also randomized for each student. The answer sheet would
be scanned in and combined with the students ID number and the
program would unscramble the answers and questions. Obviously, they
lost the seed for the random number generator. The poor grad
student TAs not only had to read the questions on each exam, they also
had to look at each answer list to see what was correct on that form.
As a physics student I thought it was really funny.
Dick Hendrickson
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|