Isaac, I confess that I don't have any deep insights to offer about these architectural questions for your particular situation, but here are a few remarks that might be helpful for peripheral issues.
In Clojure 1.6.0, at least, clojure.core/rand uses java.util.Random() (seeded by the system time or something like that, I think). clojure.data.generators/*rnd* is java.util.Random() seeded with 42, unless you fill *rnd* with something else. As I understand it, java.util.Random() is not considered to be a top-notch RNG. It's good enough for simple use, but it may be that your application depends a lot on a large number of random numbers, in which case maybe it would be worth using a different RNG. I use ec.util.MersenneTwisterFast() by Sean Luke <http://www.cs.gmu.edu/~sean/research/>. My simulation project is probably a lot simpler in many respects than what you're writing. I have many "persons", with internal states that change, and with communication between persons. I give each person its own RNG, each seeded by a number from a single master RNG created at the beginning of the simulation run. By giving each person its own RNG, I don't have to worry about contention for a common RNG when I run different persons in multiple threads. Giving each person its own RNG also means that I don't even have to think about the question of whether, after a long series of timesteps, the fact that there are there are periodic patterns in how I use the random numbers (since I iterate through persons) might possibly encounter a period in the output of the RNG. (I think this is probably *very* unlikely, but I am running these simulations for research purposes, so it doesn't hurt to be sure.) By seeding all of the person-specific RNGs from the output of a single RNG, whose seed I store, I can easily recreate a run exactly, including recreating all of the individual RNGs. In my case, I can put the RNGs in the persons, since it's only in the persons that I ever use randomness (and only during communication, actually). In your application, would it be possible to bundle together all of the objects that might involve randomness, so that whenever you need an RNG, it's available to anything in that bundle? Maybe you don't need randomness available everywhere? Not sure if the way I'm putting this makes sense. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your first post. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
