OK, so I was missing one test (there are a lot of them and I miscounted) -- NOW dieharder has all of the diehard tests on board.
I've also written a LONG documentation PDF on the tool and random number testing in general (preparatory to writing a paper on the subject, maybe) and included in /usr/share/doc in the RPM and in the tarball just lying around (it should probably be in the docs subdirectory, hmmm). I have a couple of questions for the list and GSL developers in general about RNGs. a) Are there any plans to put a BBS (Blum-Blum-Shub) RNG into the GSL? It is supposedly slow but cryptographically strong and I'd like to verify that in dieharder as I start to work on the crypto tests from STS. If I write one in a standard GSL wrapper, will you add it? b) I've written GSL-compatible RNG wrappers for /dev/random and /dev/urandom for systems where they exist. /dev/random in particular is a good source of seeds for both simulations and cryptography, and writing a file based snippet to do so in code is a PITA compared to using a GSL call. c) Indeed, adding a gsl_newseed() function that uses /dev/random if available and black magic if not to make a "high quality seed" is a really good idea. Naturally I have a routine that does this that I move around into my code as needed, but the whole point of a library is to not have to write or maintain commonly used reusable code any more. I'd be happy to take a stab at writing this, as well, if adding the function is acceptable. d) I also have written GSL-compatible wrappers for file based input of random numbers, as people persist in wanting to test rands from files instead of wrapping them up GSL-style even though I provide them nice templates for doing so in dieharder. The raw binary interface in particular seems like it would be a useful addtion to the GSL itself (formatted ascii input works for a lot of the scanf formats, but is a bit more of a PITA). Any takers? Just suggetions. rgb -- Robert G. Brown http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/ Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305 Durham, N.C. 27708-0305 Phone: 1-919-660-2567 Fax: 919-660-2525 email:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
