(MeowChow) Re: perl rand() function

[MeowChow]

Yes, it is zero inclusive, however, I wouldn't be waiting around for perl -e '1 while rand' to finish within my lifetime.

   MeowChow                                   
               s aamecha.s a..a\u$&owag.print

[tye]

I'm so sorry that MeowChow was diagnosed as terminally ill with less than 1 second expected to live! I'm just glad the submit button got pressed before the end.

% perl -de 0
...
  DB<1> $c=0; print ''.localtime(),$/; $c++ while rand; print ''.local
+time(),$",$c,$/
Tue Apr 16 07:57:24 2002
Tue Apr 16 07:57:24 2002 55285

  DB<2> $c=0; print ''.localtime(),$/; $c++ while rand; print ''.local
+time(),$",$c,$/
Tue Apr 16 07:57:28 2002
Tue Apr 16 07:57:28 2002 82230

;)

Update: To be more informative rather than just humorous, I'll note that     perl -MConfig -e 'print $Config{randbits}' reports 15 for me. If I managed to build Perl such that this value got all the way up to 32, then I'd project MeowChow's life expectancy at a bit under 45 minutes. If I got that up to 48, then we'd be talking closer to 5 years. And if I got it up to 64, then I'd agree with MeowChow that waiting around 350,000 years wasn't worthwhile. (:

        - tye (no, I don't own a Cray)

[MeowChow]

tye, you absolutely slay me :)

   MeowChow                                   
               s aamecha.s a..a\u$&owag.print