I humbly submit for my fellow monks' consideration a new CPAN module: Math::Random::MT::Auto. The module implements the Mersenne Twister which is the (current) quintessential pseudo-random number generator (PRNG). It is fast, and has a period of 2^19937 - 1 (> 10^6000).

Key features:

• Drop-in replacement for Perl's rand function.
• The PRNG is automatically seeded from user-selectable sources when the module is loaded.
• Seed sources include local random devices (/dev/random and /dev/urandom) and Internet sites (random.org and HotBits).
• 50% faster that previous Perl implementations (Math::Random::MT).

This module culminates my long time interest in PRNGs, and writing it gave me a chance to explore the machinations of putting together a complete CPAN module. I put in the full effort to add a comprehensive POD, thorough testing and even a sample program giving comparative timing results.

This is my first submission to CPAN, and I would appreciate any feedback. (A review posted here on PerlMonks would be fantastic. Any takers?)

UPDATE: The terrific feedback from grinder, tlm, and others inspired me to go the whole nine yards with this module. Version 4.00.00 features:

• Functional interface to a standalone PRNG
• Full-blown OO interface that uses the inside-out object model, and is thread-safe (Perl v5.7.2 and up).
• More than twice as fast as Math::Random::MT: under Windows, and more than four times faster under Solaris
• 64-bit int support for Perl compiled with 'use64bitint'
• Comprehensive subclass support including a working sample subclass for illustration
• Generalized random device support which also supports random seed data from files
• Support for user-supplied seeding functions
• Support for fetching and restoring PRNG state vector
• Win32 XP random seed source
• Integer and floating-point uniform random deviates
• Non-uniform deviates:
• Gaussian (normal)
• Exponential
• Erlang (gamma of integer order)
• Poisson
• Binomial
• A Fisher-Yates suffling function/method
• Numerous sample scripts

---

---

Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!

Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.

Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.

Please read these before you post! —

• How do I compose an effective node title?
• How do I post a question effectively?
• Markup in the Monastery

Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:

a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr

You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)

	For:		Use:
	&		&
	<		&lt;
	>		&gt;
	[		&#91;
	]		&#93;

Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?

See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.