Change random.seed() so that it can get at the full range of possible

internal states.  Put the old .seed() (which could only get at about
the square root of the # of possibilities) under the new name .whseed(),
for bit-level compatibility with older versions.  This occurred to me
while reviewing effbot's book (he found himself stumbling over .seed()
more than once there ...).

1 files changed, 10 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 5c633f0..85d106f 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -32,6 +32,16 @@ Standard library
   each thread, then using .jumpahead() to force each instance to use a
   non-overlapping segment of the full period.
 
+- random.py's seed() function is new.  For bit-for-bit compatibility with
+  prior releases, use the whseed function instead.  The new seed function
+  addresses two problems:  (1) The old function couldn't produce more than
+  about 2**24 distinct internal states; the new one about 2**45 (the best
+  that can be done in the Wichmann-Hill generator).  (2) The old function
+  sometimes produced identical internal states when passed distinct
+  integers, and there was no simple way to predict when that would happen;
+  the new one guarantees to produce distinct internal states for all
+  arguments in [0, 27814431486576L).
+
 Windows changes
 
 - Build procedure:  the zlib project is built in a different way that