Random Number Update

[Dominic Steinitz]

I wanted to give an update on the status of random numbers in Haskell.

 1. It is well known that the random number generator package
    https://hackage.haskell.org/package/random gives unexpected
    results.
 2. Most people do *not* use it. I believe
    https://hackage.haskell.org/package/mwc-random is a popular choice
    but developers are free to use e.g. Mersenne Twister, PCG
    (Permuted Congruential Generator), TF (ThreeFish) and many others.
 3. Approximately 2 years, I made a proposal to replace the algorithm
    within random (https://hackage.haskell.org/package/random) with
    that used by tf-random
    (https://hackage.haskell.org/package/tf-random) which is used by
    QuickCheck. In summary, the response to this was that someone
    should do more research with the result that nothing happened.
 4. In the meantime, random
    (https://hackage.haskell.org/package/random) is *no longer* a core
    library. It's just a library with the same status as
    e.g. mwc-random. However, it has one difference: it uses the name
    for its module: "System.Random". Other RNGs use
    "System.Random.MWC", "System.Random.PCG", "System.Random.Mersenne"
    etc.

As a maintainer of random
(https://hackage.haskell.org/package/random), my proposal now is to
deprecate all of it.

I am not clear what the policy is on namespace usage. Could every RNG
use the module name "System.Random"? Or is this somehow reserved? If
the latter then I propose that *nothing* uses this name and that all
RNGs should add a suffix indicating which algorithm they use.

I note that the Haskell Platform contains tf-random so users of this
will still be able to generate (better) random numbers.

If someone comes along in the future, as I hope they do, and
implements e.g. Guy Steele's splitmix algorithm then this can occupy
the name "System.Random.Splitmix" and have the package name
"random-splitmix".

The advantages of doing this are:

 1. Neophyte (and experienced) Haskellers do not accidentally use an
    RNG which gives unexpected results.
 2. No-one will any longer be able to write blogs or papers about this
    embarrassing aspect of Haskell.

I believe the co-maintainer of random
(https://hackage.haskell.org/package/random), Carter Schonwald, has a
different view on this matter but it is best he speaks for himself
rather than me imperfectly trying to reflect his thinking.

Dominic Steinitz
dominic at steinitz.org
http://idontgetoutmuch.wordpress.com