Random 0.2.1

Ruby
1

Hi,

A first public release of Random is now available. See README below
for details and get it from:

http://rubyforge.org/projects/random/

It has only been tested on linux so far and is only available as a gem.

If someone is willing to compile it on windows and mac os x so we can
have pre-compiled gems please email me.

Best regards and happy easter,

Robert F.

= Random - Ruby classes for pseudorandom number generation

This package contains Random, a ruby extension adding classes for
generating pseudorandom number generation (PRNG).

Random has the following features:

  • A fast PRNG implemented in C and wrapped in a Ruby class. The
    algorithm is the well-known and widely used MersenneTwister.

  • Multiple independent random streams can be active at the same time
    (since the PRNG is wrapped in a class and objects of that class are
    independent).

  • PRNG objects supports marshaling.

This is in contrast to Ruby’s standard srand/rand methods. Even though
the standard methods use the same PRNG algorithm (the MersenneTwister)
only a single (global) PRNG exists for each ruby invocation and its
state cannot be saved to disc. Random alleviates these problems. This
is especially important for scientific and simulation applications.

== Download

The latest version of Random can be found at

== Installation

=== GEM Installation

Download and install Random with the following.

gem install --remote random

=== Running the Random Test Suite

Random comes with an extensive test suite. If you wish to run it:

  • CD into the top project directory of random.

  • Type:

    rake # If you have a version of rake installed

== Online Resources and References

== Simple Example

Once installed, you can use random as follows:

:include: doc/simple_example.rb

== Credits

[Richard Wagner] For the C++ implementation of the
MersenneTwister which is the basis for Random::MersenneTwister.

== License

Random is available under a BSD-style license.

:include: LICENSE

== Support

The Random homepage is http://random.rubyforge.org. You can find the
Random
RubyForge page at http://rubyforge.org/projects/random.

Feel free to submit commits or feature requests. If you send a patch,
please also update and send the corresponding unit tests.

It would be great to get help with creating pre-compiled gems of this
to simplify for users that do not have a build environment. Please
email if you can help with this (especially for non-linux targets).

For other information, feel free to ask on the ruby-talk mailing list
(which is mirrored to comp.lang.ruby) or contact
mailto:[email protected].

= Other stuff

Author:: Robert F. [email protected]
Requires:: Ruby 1.8.2 or later (but only tested with 1.8.4)
License:: Copyright 2006 by Robert F.
Released under a BSD-style license. See the LICENSE file
included in the distribution.

2

Once installed, you can use random as follows:

:include: doc/simple_example.rb

Oops, this should be:

require ‘rubygems’
require ‘random’

mt = Random::RNG.new()
mt.rand # like Ruby’s normal rand
mt.rand_num(1, 6) # gives a random integer in 1…6
mt.rand_float_exclusive # gives random float >= 0.0 and < 1.0
mt.rand_float # gives random float >= 0.0 and <= 1.0
mt.rand_int_with_bits(1000) # gives random integer with 1000 random
bits
mt.rand_bytes(10) # gives a random string of length 10
mt.next # next random number in RNG stream
(typically an
# integer >= 0 and < 2**32)
str = Marshal.dump(mt) # Marshal the full state of mt to a string
mt2 = Marshal.load(str) # and read it back in.
mt2.next == mt.next # => true
a = (1…100).to_a
a.random_element # gives a random element from the array