3 ms·

RNG's... Did they include Mersenne Twister? http://www.math.sci.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/~m-mat/MT/emt.html http://www.math.sci.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/~m-mat/MT/emt.html

by palish 15y ago

RNG's... Did they include Mersenne Twister? http://www.math.sci.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/~m-mat/MT/emt.html http://www.math.sci.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/~m-mat/MT/emt.html EDIT: Apologies... the only reason I asked was to contribute to the discussion, but now I realize it probably looked like I was being lazy.

archangel_one 15y ago
Yes - there are several options, which MT is one of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_0x#Extensible_random_number_facility http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_0x#Extensible_random_number_f...
astrange 15y ago
Mersenne Twister is hardly perfect. It's slow, causes a lot of cache misses, and IIRC the output is purely XOR of previous outputs. Do people just bring it up because they like the name?
- corysama 15y ago
  Deserved or not, Mersenne Twister is somewhat famous among laymen like myself for being very fast relative to it's reasonably high quality. If you can point me at an RNG that is both faster and higher quality, I will be genuinely in your debt.
  - msbarnett 15y ago
    My layman's understanding is that George Marsaglia's xorshift generator[1] is considerably faster than the Mersenne Twister while still providing high quality randomness. I've also seen WELL512[2] mentioned in a few places, but I don't know much more about it than the name. [1]: First introduced here: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.c/msg/e3c4ea1169e463ae http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.c/msg/e3c4ea1169e46... [2]: http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~panneton/WELLRNG.html http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~panneton/WELLRNG.html
    - corysama 15y ago
      Let me know if you are ever in San Francisco and I'll open the tab at one of our many fine beer-snob bars (or a wine-snob bar, if you prefer). This thread & invite is still open to anyone who can provide further suggestions!

3 ms·

RNG's... Did they include Mersenne Twister? http://www.math.sci.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/~m-mat/MT/emt.html http://www.math.sci.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/~m-mat/MT/emt.html

by palish 15y ago

archangel_one 15y ago
Yes - there are several options, which MT is one of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_0x#Extensible_random_number_facility http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_0x#Extensible_random_number_f...
astrange 15y ago
Mersenne Twister is hardly perfect. It's slow, causes a lot of cache misses, and IIRC the output is purely XOR of previous outputs. Do people just bring it up because they like the name?
- corysama 15y ago
  Deserved or not, Mersenne Twister is somewhat famous among laymen like myself for being very fast relative to it's reasonably high quality. If you can point me at an RNG that is both faster and higher quality, I will be genuinely in your debt.
  - msbarnett 15y ago
    My layman's understanding is that George Marsaglia's xorshift generator[1] is considerably faster than the Mersenne Twister while still providing high quality randomness. I've also seen WELL512[2] mentioned in a few places, but I don't know much more about it than the name. [1]: First introduced here: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.c/msg/e3c4ea1169e463ae http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.c/msg/e3c4ea1169e46... [2]: http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~panneton/WELLRNG.html http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~panneton/WELLRNG.html
    - corysama 15y ago
      Let me know if you are ever in San Francisco and I'll open the tab at one of our many fine beer-snob bars (or a wine-snob bar, if you prefer). This thread & invite is still open to anyone who can provide further suggestions!