[Ns-developers] Random Variables API changes

[Tom Henderson]

Mathieu Lacage wrote:
> On Sun, 2009-01-18 at 22:34 -0800, Tom Henderson wrote:
> 
>> In particular, it would be preferable if the end result of the 
>> implementation change were that the seed and run numbers automatically 
>> end up in the ConfigStore output for any given execution.
> 
> Ok, but that is another issue: would you mind open a bug report to keep
> track of this specific feature ?

Sure.

> 
>> Similarly, in all of the example files, I think we should be careful to 
>> update our suggested usage pattern; e.g.:
>>
>> -  RandomVariable::UseGlobalSeed (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8);
>> +  uint32_t seed[6] = {1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8};
>> +  SeedManager::SetSeed(seed);
>>
>> is going to reinforce the less-preferred behavior of changing seeds each 
>> time to try to get independent runs.  Better would be something like:
>>
>> -  RandomVariable::UseGlobalSeed (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8);
>> +  // Change either the run number below or the RngXXX attribute to 
>> obtain an independent replication
>> +  SeedManager::SetRun (1);
> 
> I was under the impression that the recommended usage would be more
> along the lines of:
> 
> - RandomVariable::UseGlobalSeed (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8);
> 
> and recommend using either the command-line or the env variable to
> change the global seed and/or the run number.
> 

 From what I understand, there is not really any advantage to specifying 
a six-tuple seed rather than a single integer.  Also, the recommended 
way to get independent replications is to set the run number differently 
using the same seed-- that is one of the main reasons we are abandoning 
time of day or /dev/random as a global seed.  So, it may be better if we 
deemphasize setting seeds in the example scripts and instead set run 
numbers.

Tom