Should I use a random engine seeded from std::random_device or use std::random_device every time

Question

I have a class that contains two sources of randomness.

std::random_device rd;
std::mt19937 random_engine;

I seed the std::mt19937

Answer 1

You may want to have a look at http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/GoingNative/2013/rand-Considered-Harmful that explains why you should use uniform_int_distribution, and the relatives strengths of random_device / mt19937.

In this video, Stephan T. Lavavej specifically states that on visual C++, random_device can be used for cryptographic purposes.