Re: Apple II Random Events?

[david@uow.edu.au (David Wilson)]

Gabriel Morales <Togega@Concentric.net> writes:
>I was wondering:

>How does an Apple II, say using the BASIC RND command, determine a
>random number?

>Since the Apple IIgs has a built-in clock, I suppose it could simply
>look at the date string (and multiply it by a determined number, for
>example) to provide a "random" number, but what about all other Apple IIs?

>How does an Apple II generate a random number?

Simple Answer: It doesn't.

Complex Answer: The RND() function returns a pseudo random sequence.

If you know the previous number returned you can determine the next
one. You can seed the sequence by passing a negative number to RND().

I assume that the first number generated after power up (provided you
do not seed it first) is either fixed or depends on the power up
contents of a particular memory location (or two).
--
David Wilson  School of IT & CS, Uni of Wollongong, Australia  david@uow.edu.au