[erlang-questions] On OTP rand module difference between OTP 19 and OTP 20

[Raimo Niskanen]

On Thu, Aug 31, 2017 at 10:29:34PM -0700, Michael Truog wrote:
:
> 
> I have some examples that can make this desire a bit clearer:
> 
> https://github.com/CloudI/cloudi_core/blob/a1c10a02245f0f4284d701a2ee5f07aad17f6e51/src/cloudi_core_i_runtime_testing.erl#L139-L149
> 
>      % use Box-Muller transformation to generate Gaussian noise
>      % (G. E. P. Box and Mervin E. Muller,
>      %  A Note on the Generation of Random Normal Deviates,
>      %  The Annals of Mathematical Statistics (1958),
>      %  Vol. 29, No. 2 pp. 610–611)
>      X1 = random(),
>      X2 = PI2 * random(),
>      K = StdDev * math:sqrt(-2.0 * math:log(X1)),
>      Result1 = erlang:max(erlang:round(Mean + K * math:cos(X2)), 1),
>      Result2 = erlang:max(erlang:round(Mean + K * math:sin(X2)), 1),
>      sleep(Result2),

Why not use rand:normal/3?

It uses the Ziggurat Method and is supposed to be much faster and
numerically more stable than the basic Box-Muller method.

-- 

/ Raimo Niskanen, Erlang/OTP, Ericsson AB