Random(3) often returns 1

[Mark Schonewille]

Hello,

I think Sarah is right, lines may end up with equal random numbers.  
However, my test results show another weird phenomenon.

on mouseUp
   put "0,0,0" into myCounter
   repeat 10
     repeat 1000
       add 1 to item random(3) of myCounter
     end repeat
     put myCounter && sum(myCounter) & return after myList
     put "0,0,0" into myCounter
   end repeat
   put myList
end mouseUp


test results:

330,328,329 987
316,315,317 948
325,326,326 977
337,337,339 1013
349,350,349 1048
327,327,325 979
348,348,347 1043
355,356,355 1066
330,330,329 989
335,335,334 1004

There is a bug somewhere, which causes these weird results. The  
following works fine:

on mouseUp
   put "0,0,0" into myCounter
   repeat 10
     repeat 1000
       put random(3) into x
       add 1 to item x of myCounter
     end repeat
     put myCounter && sum(myCounter) & return after myList
     put "0,0,0" into myCounter
   end repeat
   put myList
end mouseUp

with these test results:

312,344,344 1000
338,344,318 1000
313,343,344 1000
320,344,336 1000
291,338,371 1000
339,303,358 1000
337,324,339 1000
328,338,334 1000
322,331,347 1000
305,354,341 1000

I don't know whether this might affect the sort function or any other  
application of random numbers, besides using them in repeat loops.

Best,

Mark


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Op 8-jun-2006, om 14:16 heeft Thomas McCarthy het volgende geschreven:

>
> Has anyone noticed this?
> I have two games that sort a container (three lines, one line is  
> the answer) by random the number of lines. The "answer" should be  
> in any one of the three resulting lines, but is overwhelmingly in  
> the first
>
> any thoughts?
> tm