easyRNG is a simple library for C and Fortran providing access to several pseudo-random number generators and pseudo-random number distributions.

It doesn't include any implementations of generators or distributions, but is instead a thin wrapper around the random templates of the C++ Standard Library that have been defined in the 2011 revision of the C++ standard.

The API is modelled after the GNU Scientific Library (GSL), and its Fortran bindings FGSL. Preliminary tests suggest that easyRNG's performance of its Mersenne Twister random number generators is only slightly worse than its GSL counterparts, but this stronly depends on which implementation of the C++ Standard Library was used.

The main reason to use this library over GSL or FGSL is its license. While GSL and FGSL are covered by the GNU General Public License version 3, easyRNG is available under the 3-clause BSD license, allowing for use in closed-source/commercial software packages.

Author

Tom Schoonjans