Looking for some random-functions ..._(re)

Sat, 20 Sep 1997 13:03:34 +0200 (MEST)

Hi!

According to Christian Bockermann:
> 
> I'm not sure, if this is the right place for my question, but I don't know
> where else to look for help. So, if this is not the right way, please 
> appologize. 

This is absolutely the right place.
Welcome to the GNU Pascal mailing list!  :)

> My actual problem is that I don't find any procedures of functions to get
> randomized numbers. I tried "randomize" and "random(n)" as in Turbo Pascal,
> but it didn't work. :-)
> Is there any unit perhaps, which includes such functions in GPC ? Is there
> perhaps something like the "CRT"-unit ?

We are currently working on a built-in `random' function.  For the moment,
you can use one of the following:

  * On ftp://agnes.dida.physik.uni-essen.de/gnu-pascal/contrib/, you
    can find a "BPcompat" package that contains a `System' Unit (with
    `random' etc.), a `CRT', and more.  While it is written to work
    with DJGPP (DOS), it should not be too hard to port the relevant
    parts to Linux.
    I don't know whether somebody is already working on a Linux version
    of this.  If you would like to do something in this direction,
    please let us know.

  * At the same location there is another package "BO5" which implements
    a portable `random' function and some replacement stuff for `CRT'.
    I am currently working on making it a complete user-interface library.

  * Here is `random':

       Function Rand: Integer; C;  (* Use C's `rand' function. *)

       Procedure InitRandom ( Seed: Integer ); asmname 'srand';
                                (* Replacement for `RandSeed'. *)

       Function Random ( limit: Integer ): Integer;

       begin (* Random *)
         Random:= Rand mod limit;
       end (* Random *);

You know how to get a real number 0 <= x < 1 out of `Rand'.

Greetings,

    Peter

 Dipl.-Phys. Peter Gerwinski, Essen, Germany, free physicist and programmer
peter.gerwinski@uni-essen.de - http://home.pages.de/~peter.gerwinski/ [970201]
 maintainer GNU Pascal [970714] - http://home.pages.de/~gnu-pascal/ [970125]

Peter Gerwinski (peter@agnes.dida.physik.uni-essen.de)