[mercury-users] random.m: little warning

[Fergus Henderson]

On 17-Oct-1998, Andrew Bromage <bromage at cs.mu.OZ.AU> wrote:
> 
> Let's not forget that "poor behaviour" is relative.  If all you want to
> do is shuffle a deck of cards, a simple linear-congruential generator
> (used wisely) may well be sufficient.

If the standard library includes a random number generator,
then ideally I think it should be one that even a novice can use,
not one that only works if "used wisely".

If the library includes more than one random number generator,
then it would make sense to include a very-fast-but-easy-to-misuse
as an alternative, as well as a very-strong-but-slower RNG.
But I think one RNG is probably sufficient for the moment.
We can reconsider that once we start to make serious use of
type classes in the standard library.

-- 
Fergus Henderson <fjh at cs.mu.oz.au>  |  "I have always known that the pursuit
WWW: <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~fjh>  |  of excellence is a lethal habit"
PGP: finger fjh at 128.250.37.3        |     -- the last words of T. S. Garp.