[R] runif limited precision

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 02/01/2009 4:16 PM, Stavros Macrakis wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 4:03 PM, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca> wrote:
>> On 02/01/2009 2:45 PM, Stavros Macrakis wrote:
>>> ...So I'd think that either runif should give full precision or
>>> its documentation should mention this limitation.
>> It refers to the .Random.seed page for details, and that page mentions the
>> limitation to at most 2^32 different values for most of the generators.
> 
> Indeed it does -- thanks for the pointer!  I still think it would be
> helpful to the user to mention the limitation in the individual
> r<dist> doc pages, as not many users are likely to work through the
> very complete RNG doc page.

I don't agree.  If you add too much technical detail to a topic, then 
people don't "work through it".  I'd say the r<dist> pages generally 
give enough detail now, but not too much.  If you add every detail that 
might interest someone somewhere, then they'd all be hard to read.

Duncan Murdoch