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From: Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.awk
Subject: Re: 100 Random Single Variable Linear Equations
Date: Sat, 7 Dec 2024 03:21:34 +0100
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On 07.12.2024 02:49, Mike Sanders wrote:
> Mike Sanders <porkchop@invalid.foo> wrote:
> 
>> [...]
>> SEED = SEED ? SEED : 1
>> [...]
> 
> no, no, what am i thinking, better expressed as:
> 
> if (!SEED) SEED = 1
> 

A deliberately chosen seed of 0 gets overwritten?

How about (since you're expecting a number)

   if (SEED=="") SEED = 1

or (for good measure) the more general pattern for
an "uninitialized" variable 'var'

   if (var=="" && var==0) ...   # uninitialized
   else ...   # initialized (including "" and 0)

But is a seed of 1 "better" than a seed of 0 ?
Both create deterministic random number sequences.

Only srand() (i.e. without argument) creates a
time-depending quasi non-deterministic sequence.

My choice would probably be

   if (var=="" && var==0) srand()   # random start
   else srand(var)   # deterministic

to have both options.

Janis