RANDU

RANDU is a linear congruential algorithm widely considered to be one of the most ill-conceived random number generators ever designed.

Quotes

• ...its very name RANDU is enough to bring dismay into the eyes and stomachs of many computer scientists!
  • Donald E. Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming (2nd ed., 1969), Vol. 2, §3.3.4, p. 104

• One of us recalls producing a 'random' plot with only 11 planes, and being told by his computer center's programming consultant that he had misused the random number generator: 'We guarantee that each number is random individually, but we don’t guarantee that more than one of them is random.' Figure that out.
  • William H. Press, Press, Numerical Recipes in Fortran 77: The Art of Scientific Computing (2nd ed), (1992). ISBN: 0-521-43064-X.

See also

• Failure
• Software