Path: csiph.com!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!feeder.erje.net!1.eu.feeder.erje.net!newsfeed.xs4all.nl!newsfeed4.news.xs4all.nl!xs4all!post.news.xs4all.nl!not-for-mail Return-Path: X-Original-To: python-list@python.org Delivered-To: python-list@mail.python.org X-Spam-Status: OK 0.078 X-Spam-Evidence: '*H*': 0.84; '*S*': 0.00; 'subject:Python': 0.05; 'python.': 0.11; 'decent': 0.16; 'remembered': 0.16; 'subject:Cython': 0.16; 'wrote:': 0.16; 'processor': 0.18; 'meant': 0.22; 'from:addr:chris': 0.22; 'am,': 0.23; 'header:In- Reply-To:1': 0.24; 'header:User-Agent:1': 0.26; 'chris': 0.26; 'converting': 0.27; 'received:dreamhost.com': 0.29; 'received:g.dreamhost.com': 0.29; 'received:10.0.0': 0.32; "d'aprano": 0.33; 'limitations': 0.33; 'steven': 0.33; 'received:10.0': 0.34; 'needed': 0.34; 'to:addr:python-list': 0.35; 'done': 0.35; 'basic': 0.36; 'received:10': 0.37; 'subject:: ': 0.37; 'stuff': 0.38; 'to:addr:python.org': 0.39; 'term': 0.60; 'back': 0.61; 'even': 0.61; 'close': 0.61; 'day.': 0.63; 'charset:windows-1252': 0.65; 'subject:. ': 0.66; 'book,': 0.72; 'computers.': 0.84 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha1; c=relaxed; d=cdreimer.com; h=message-id :date:from:mime-version:to:subject:references:in-reply-to :content-type:content-transfer-encoding; s=cdreimer.com; bh=YRZ1 kwyX8wyIi6KSmV0TBJeQ5vc=; b=kUXtaT7MUfF90ehfHjp2HgViLQoVecKXLmks PWTks/LhEeYAn13FuS/exgGt9Cve/v+K33SrfQl1UZO9F5BsemXien+UpOySKN+O aBZXQLHd2IEjUEcmCdwSzB0B+eq6xUkGlgN2dPqG9RKvCquOaJd9ExJkN1TdAyvJ fEPUId0= Date: Sun, 07 Jun 2015 11:56:16 -0700 From: "C.D. Reimer" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; WOW64; rv:31.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/31.7.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: python-list@python.org Subject: Re: Python Random vs. Cython C Rand for Dice Rolls References: <55748e6d$0$13008$c3e8da3$5496439d@news.astraweb.com> In-Reply-To: <55748e6d$0$13008$c3e8da3$5496439d@news.astraweb.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-BeenThere: python-list@python.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.20+ Precedence: list List-Id: General discussion list for the Python programming language List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Newsgroups: comp.lang.python Message-ID: Lines: 11 NNTP-Posting-Host: 2001:888:2000:d::a6 X-Trace: 1433703386 news.xs4all.nl 2832 [2001:888:2000:d::a6]:54955 X-Complaints-To: abuse@xs4all.nl Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:92291 On 6/7/2015 11:33 AM, Steven D'Aprano wrote: > C rand is not even close to random. The technical term for it is "shite". Looking through the BASIC book, I remembered all the tricks needed to get a half-way decent number generator on a 1MHz processor back in the day. Either the numbers start repeating after a while or get stuck on a particular number. That's one of the challenges of converting these old games from BASIC to Python. A lot of the stuff done in BASIC was meant to get around the hardware limitations of the early computers. Chris R.