[Python-Dev] a note in random.shuffle.__doc__ ...

[Greg Ewing]

Tim Peters wrote:

> Off the top of my head, then, since the Twister is provably
> equidistributed in 623 dimensions to 32-bit accuracy, I expect it
> should be able to "fairly" generate all permutations of a sequence of
> <= 623 elements (equidistribution in N dimensions implies
> equidistribution in all dimensions <= N).  So I'm happy to leave a
> warning out until the casinos switch to 12-deck blackjack ;-)

But isn't the problem with the Twister that for *some
initial states* the period could be much *shorter* than
the theoretical maximum?

Or is the probability of getting such an initial state
too small to worry about?

--
Greg