From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!eagle!mhuxt!mhuxa!mhb5b!smb
Newsgroups: net.bugs.4bsd
Title: Re: Bug in random number generator
Article-I.D.: mhb5b.232
Posted: Thu Mar 24 13:46:49 1983
Received: Fri Mar 25 21:37:28 1983
References: <191@ritcv.UUCP>

As Knuth points out (Art of Computer Programming, Vol. 2 -- Seminumerical
Algorithms) the low-order bits of *any* linear congruential random number
generator are not particularly random.  The proper way to view the output
is as a fraction between 0 and 1.  Thus, to get a random bit, one should
never take rand()%2; rather, one should use rand() > (MAXINT/2) (or some
such).

Of course, none of this means that rand() is a good random number generator --
it's not.


		--Steve