I've received a personal reply from Andy.  I'm forwarding it for
others. 

------- Start of forwarded message -------
Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2000 14:08:54 -0500
From: Andrew Hunt <andy / Toolshed.Com>
To: matz / netlab.co.jp
Subject: Re: [ruby-talk:01065] Re: rand() / drand48()

	>So, you think it's OK to generate different sequences for each
	>invocation, iff the mean to suppy seed is available, right?

Correct.  I think most developers' expectation is that when
they call a random function, they'll get a random result each run.

So, that would seem to follow the "Princple of Least Surprise" --
which Ruby is terrific at honoring, by the way.  I can't think
of another language where I can type in code for such a long time
and have it run first try!

Thanks,

/\ndy
------- End of forwarded message -------