Need a random # generator

[James Darrell McCauley]

Note: original was to grassu-list.

There's a good one included in s.perturb, located at:
ftp://pasture.ecn.purdue.edu/pub/mccauley/grass/.
Contact the original author,  W. P. Petersen,
<wpp at ips.ethz.ch> for more details.

Here's a blurb from a README file:

README for zufall random number package, C version
------ --- ------ ------ ------ -------  - -------

[NOTE: I have not done extension testing of this port.
       use at your own risk. The output of the original
       FORTRAN program is in zufall.orig.output. The
       original FORTRAN source is at 
       netlib.att.com:netlib/random/zufall.f.Z  --jdm]

This package contains a portable random number generator set
for: uniform (u in [0,1)), normal (<g> = 0, <g^2> = 1), and
Poisson distributions. The basic module, the uniform generator,
uses a lagged Fibonacci series generator:

              t    = u[n-273] + u[n-607]
              u[n] = t - (float) ((int) t)

where each number generated, u[k], is floating point. Since
the numbers are floating point, the left end boundary of the
range contains zero. This package was ported from FORTRAN
to K&R C.

--Darrell

tim glover (tim_glover at abbsmtp.abb.com) writes on 15 December 1995:
>    Sorry this is a little off subject, but I hope someone can help me...
>
>    I need source code or algorithm for a good random number generator.
>    I'm working in an old FORTRAN compiler that doesn't have an
>    intrinsic one, and I found out that the one I'm using cycles after
>    about 9000 numbers.  Not good enough!
>
>    Thanks for any help....
>
>
>Views expressed above are my own unless otherwise stated
>
>Tim Glover     (Tim_Glover at ABBSMTP.abb.com)
>ABB Environmental Services
>Tallahassee, FL, USA 32301 (904) 656-1293 ext 290
-- 
Darrell McCauley, PhD; mccauley at mcs.com; http://www.mcs.com/~mccauley/