This is my first bug report(ever), so feel free to point out how I could do a better job of this... Anyways I have found a bug with the mersenne_twister random number generator class, where results when calling for a random number vary between codewarrior 9.0 and gcc 3.4.1 with boost 1.31.0. A simple example is shown below: #include <boost/random/mersenne_twister.hpp> // for mt11213b typedef boost::mt11213b base_generator_type; class foo { public: foo(const base_generator_type gen):m_gen(gen) {} ~foo(void) {} rand_type operator() ( void ) { const float x = m_gen(); return x; } private: base_generator_type m_gen; } int main(void) { base_generator_type gen( (uint32_t) 2000); seed is not important foo f(gen); cout << "Random result is " << f() << endl; } The resulting numbers will be different between codewarrior 9.0 running on windows and gcc 3.4.1 running on Suse linux 7.3.(Hope that is enough info). I tracked the cause of the bug down to class initialization. In the case of CW9.0, the compiler when constructing a foo, will use a mersenne_twister copy ctor when initializing m_gen, while in the case of gcc 3.4.1 it will choose the following in the .hpp file template<class Generator> explicit mersenne_twister(Generator & gen) { seed(gen); } therefore using the provided generator as a seed to the new generator rather than just copying its state, even though no template parameter is provided. Anyways I will leave it up to the more informed to decide which is more desirable/proper; however, this is a fairly nasty bug at the moment as