title: Why are drand48() and friends obsolete?
body: <p>Why are drand48() and friends obsolete? After all, they seem superior to the standard libc rand(). Have I missed something?</p>
  <p>The manual pages for rand() and drand48() also seem at odds. The first recommends the second, and the second states that it is obsolete and the first should be used. (Though, to be fair, a lot of people who understand the math behind PRNGs have issues with the man pages for these functions because they are poorly-worded and in some instances just wrong.)</p>
  <p>Still, I can find no justification for the &quot;obsolete&quot; status.</p>