#include <stddef.h>
#include <time.h>
#include <limits.h>

/* Usage: srand (time_seed ()); */

/* Choose and return an initial random seed based on the current time.
   Based on code by Lawrence Kirby <fred@genesis.demon.co.uk>. */
unsigned 
time_seed (void) 
{
  time_t timeval;
  unsigned char *ptr;
  unsigned seed;
  size_t i;

  timeval = time (NULL);
  ptr = (unsigned char *) &timeval;

  seed = 0;
  for (i = 0; i < sizeof timeval; i++)
    seed = seed * (UCHAR_MAX + 2U) + ptr[i];

  return seed;
}