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     1 =head1 NAME

     3  prng - pseudo-random number generator

     5 =head1 SYNOPSIS

     7  prng [count]

     9 =head1 DESCRIPTION

    11 B<Prng> generates 32-bit pseudo-random integers using the

    12 Blum-Blum-Shub (BBS) quadratic residue generator.  It is seeded using

    13 the standard C library's rand() function, which itself seeded from the

    14 system clock and the process ID number.  Thus, the values generated

    15 are not particularly useful for cryptographic applications, but they

    16 are in general much better than the typical output of the usual

    17 multiplicative congruency generator used by most runtime libraries.

    19 You may optionally specify how many random values should be generated

    20 by giving a I<count> argument on the command line.  If you do not

    21 specify a count, only one random value will be generated.  The results

    22 are output to the standard output in decimal notation, one value per

    23 line.

    25 =head1 RESTRICTIONS

    27 As stated above, B<prng> uses the C library's rand() function to seed

    28 the generator, so it is not terribly suitable for cryptographic

    29 applications.  Also note that each time you run the program, a new

    30 seed is generated, so it is better to run it once with a I<count>

    31 parameter than it is to run it multiple times to generate several

    32 values.

    34 =head1 AUTHOR

    36  Michael J. Fromberger <sting@linguist.dartmouth.edu>

    37  Copyright (C) 1998 Michael J. Fromberger, All Rights Reserved

    38  Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH  USA

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