Re: Re: random number facilities in numarray and main Python libs

Faheem Mitha wrote:

> On Tue, 07 Sep 2004 16:35:11 -0700, Robert Kern <rkern@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
>  
>
> > Faheem Mitha wrote:
> > [snip]
> >    
> >
> > > Are the random number facilities provided by numarray.random_array 
> > > superior to those provided to those provided by the random module in the 
> > > Python library? They certainly seem more extensive, and I like the 
> > > interface better.
> > >
> > > If so, why not replace the random module by the equivalent functionality 
> > > from numarray.random_array, and have everyone use the same random number 
> > > generator? Or is this impossible for practical reasons?
> > >      
> > numarray.random_array can generate arrays full of random numbers. 
> > Standard Python's random does not and will not until numarray is part of 
> > the standard library. Standard Python's random also uses the Mersenne 
> > Twister algorithm which is, by most accounts, superior to RANLIB's 
> > algorithm, so I for one would object to replacing it with numarray's 
> > code.  :-)
> >
> > I do intend to implement the Mersenne Twister algorithm for SciPy's PRNG 
> > facilities (on some unspecified weekend). I will also try to code 
> > something up for numarray, too.
> >    
>
> Does SciPy have its own random num facilities too? It would easier to
> just consolidate all these efforts, I would have thought.
>  
I would agree, which is why I don't like the current move to put all 
kinds of processing facility into numarray.    It is creating two 
parallel efforts and causing a split in the community.

The purpose of SciPy was to collect scientific algorithms together 
(scipy's random number facilities are borrowed and enhanced from Numeric 
--- same place numarray comes from).

-Travis O.




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