Programming Praxis

We’ve built several random number generators: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9] (I didn’t realize it was so many until I went back and looked). In today’s exercise we look at a way to test them. There are several well-known random-number testers, including Donald Knuth’s spectral test and George Marsaglia’s diehard test, but our test will be much simpler. Specifically, we test two things:

1) The numbers generated have an equal number of 0-bits and 1-bits.

2) The maximum run of consecutive 1-bits is consistent with probability theory.

Your task is to write a simple random number tester. When you are finished, you are welcome to read or run a suggested solution, or to post your own solution or discuss the exercise in the comments below.

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