[Gretl-devel] 'seed'

[Allin Cottrell]

On Tue, 29 Aug 2006, Riccardo Jack Lucchetti wrote:

> On Tue, August 29, 2006 18:04, Ignacio Diaz-Emparanza wrote:
>> ¿Another bug?
>>
>> With the current Windows snapshot (build 8/22/2006) I was checking if
>> the new "seed" option in the /add/normal/random variable/normal dialog
>> box works. Datafile data9-9 was opened, I selected the above entry in
>> the menu, I put "3" in the seed box, and generated a normal (0,1)
>> variable with name "norm", I repeated the operation changing the name
>> to norm2, and the result was:
>>
>>     Obs          norm        norm2
>>
>>   1976:1      1,232701    -0,017542
>>   1976:2     -1,862191     0,237066

There was something wrong about this dialog: the seed was 
actually set only if it differed from the previous seed -- 
that's why the two series above are not identical.  Not a bug 
exactly, but probably not what users would expect.

I am taking Jack's suggestion (or a variant of it), and will 
move the "set random set" option to the Tools menu; and I'm 
making it so that it always sets the seed, if you click "OK".

With the new setup, you can go to /Tools/Seed for random numbers 
and set, say, "3", then generate a normal series.  If you
generate another normal series without revisiting the seed 
dialog, it will differ from the first.  But if you revisit the 
seed dialog, leave the value at "3" and click "OK", then
generate another normal series, it will be identical to the 
first.

Does this seem like the right behaviour?

Allin.