[R] Random number generation

Carl carl at mcs.st-and.ac.uk
Thu Jun 1 21:13:19 CEST 2006


Hi All.
(This is probably an incredibly stupid question :))

I have just noticed that every time I start an R2.3 session and request 
a random number (say with rnorm) that I receive the same number. AFAIK I 
have not set a seed at any point. Returning to an older version of 
R(v1.8) I get the behaviour that I have come to expect, where a new seed 
is automatically generated for each new session (actually it was a 
student running bootstraps on multiple machines that has noticed this).

I am running R2.3 for windows on winXP pro, AMD Athlon 2400+.

Thanks in advance and be gentle.
C

<...retreats and waits for imminent admonishment...>

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr. Carl Donovan
Research Fellow in Statistical Computing
Ph +44 1334 461802
The Observatory
Buchanan Gardens
University of St Andrews
St Andrews
Fife
KY16 9LZ
Scotland



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