[R] runif limited precision

[Daniel Nordlund]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org 
> [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf Of Duncan Murdoch
> Sent: Friday, January 02, 2009 2:57 PM
> To: Stavros Macrakis
> Cc: r-help at r-project.org
> Subject: Re: [R] runif limited precision
> 
> 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
> 

I would have to agree with Duncan on this.  Besides, if you are doing
something where having only 2^32 distinct values is a problem, you probably
should be "working through" ALL of the documentation on random number
generation in R.  But that is just my 4 cents worth (inflation :-).

Dan

Daniel Nordlund
Bothell, WA USA