🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Jul29.090353.237@nutmeg.hnrc.tufts.edu> jerry@nutmeg.hnrc.tufts.edu (Jerry Dallal) writes:
>In article <1992Jul29.092934.23335@cl.cam.ac.uk>, nmm@cl.cam.ac.uk (Nick Maclaren) writes:

>> It's not making it a FAQ that's the problem - it's finding a GAA (Generally
>> Agreed Answer)!


>I suspect one of the most FAQs is what generator to use.  Can we not establish
>a short list of GAAs?  I nominate the Wichmann-Hill generator with the
>McLeod modification.  (I hold off on posting the code until I hear whether 
>this is a GAA!)

I would not accept anything with a short seed (say at least several 
hundred bytes) as acceptable.  Other than the believed cryptographically
strong Shamir and Blum-Miccaeli (sp?) procedures, which are extremely
costly, I know of none.  The problem is at least moderate-term independence,
and correlations, periods, etc., do not answer the question.

Also, most generators produce "real" or other lengths than the entire
word.  There are may situations in which a random bit stream is needed.
The others can be cheaply obtained from this, but not vice-versa.
-- 
Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907-1399
Phone: (317)494-6054
hrubin@pop.stat.purdue.edu (Internet, bitnet)  
{purdue,pur-ee}!pop.stat!hrubin(UUCP)