This looks like a bug to me, and is a bit hard to describe, but easy to reproduce. Basically, if RNGkind is saved as something other than the default, and if the first operation in a session is a set.seed(), the default is reverted to. Reproduce by:
cafe-rozo> R --vanilla R version 2.7.1 (2008-06-23) Copyright (C) 2008 The R Foundation for Statistical Computing ISBN 3-900051-07-0 R is free software and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. You are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions. Type 'license()' or 'licence()' for distribution details. R is a collaborative project with many contributors. Type 'contributors()' for more information and 'citation()' on how to cite R or R packages in publications. Type 'demo()' for some demos, 'help()' for on-line help, or 'help.start()' for an HTML browser interface to help. Type 'q()' to quit R. > sessionInfo() R version 2.7.1 (2008-06-23) i386--netbsdelf locale: C attached base packages: [1] stats graphics grDevices utils datasets methods base > set.seed(1); runif(1) # check the default [1] 0.2655087 > RNGkind("Mar") > RNGkind() [1] "Marsaglia-Multicarry" "Inversion" > set.seed(1); runif(1) # now check again [1] 0.006153224 > set.seed(1) # save seed and RNGkind > q("yes") cafe-rozo> R R version 2.7.1 (2008-06-23) : etc [Previously saved workspace restored] > runif(1) # with a saved seed, Marsaglia-Multicarry is used [1] 0.006153224 > set.seed(1); runif(1) [1] 0.006153224 > q() Save workspace image? [y/n/c]: n cafe-rozo> R version 2.7.1 (2008-06-23) : etc [Previously saved workspace restored] > set.seed(1); runif(1) # saved RNGkind is ignored ... [1] 0.2655087 > RNGkind() # and overridden ... [1] "Mersenne-Twister" "Inversion" > q("no") cafe-rozo> R R version 2.7.1 (2008-06-23) : etc [Previously saved workspace restored] > RNGkind() # and wrongly reported! [1] "Mersenne-Twister" "Inversion" > runif(1) # Note this is actually using > Marsaglia-Multicarry [1] 0.006153224 > Ray Brownrigg Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Victoria University of Wellington Wellington, NZ ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel