Normal RNG

[John Darrington]

It's getting late here so perhaps I'm not making sense...

Now that the EXAMINE command is semi-complete, I thought I would use
it to check out PSPP's random number generator.

I tried the following :

INPUT PROGRAM.
LOOP #I=1 TO 100.
    COMPUTE X=NORMAL(10).
    END CASE.
END LOOP.
END FILE.
END INPUT PROGRAM.

LIST /FORMAT=NUMBERED.

DESCRIPTIVES
        /var = x
        /STATISTICS = ALL
        .

EXAMINE 
        /var = x
        /STATISTICS = DESCRIPTIVES
        /PLOT = NPPLOT
        .

I'm not an expert, but I notice that the extreme values always fall
somewhat off the normal.  Does this indicate a problem with the rng?  Now
that we're using libgsl perhaps we ought to be using its functions anyway.





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