[Help-smalltalk] help with random numbers?

[Paolo Bonzini]

I profiled this simple program

Eval [
    | n k r |
    r := Random new.
    n := 100000.
    k := 500.
    (1 to: n) select: [:x |
        (r between: 1 and: n) <= k
            ifTrue: [ n := n - 1. k := k - 1] ifFalse: [n := n - 1];
            yourself ]
]

and I noticed that it spends 75% of the time generating random numbers. 
 Bytecode-wise it's not bad (30 bytecodes per random number), but 
floating point causes a large number of garbage collections.  Anybody 
wants to give a shot at reimplementing Random with a good, fast rng? 
Remember that on 32-bit machines SmallIntegers are only from -2^30 to 
2^30-1.

FWIW, here is a "more optimized" version of the above:

    o := OrderedCollection new.
    1 to: n do: [:x |
        ((r between: 0 and: (n := n - 1)) < k
            ifTrue: [o add: x. k := k - 1]) notNil ]

Either program is a good benchmark for your rng.

Paolo