Random seed - hardcoded vs. command line flag

[smmaurer]

I noticed that baus.py has been set recently to always use a random seed: baus.py#L25

But there's also code later on that accepts a --random-seed command line flag (baus.py#L71-L72). If the seed is on by default, the flag doesn't have any effect, which could be confusing.

I'm thinking we should do one of the following:

• Add another command line option (like --no-random-seed) so that modelers can easily override the default in either direction

• Get rid of the command line flag

• Set the default back to no random seed, and turn it on with the flag

My vote is for the first option, since it seems most flexible.

[theocharides]

@smmaurer thanks for paying attention! I was looking at this the other day. It's helpful that the flag overrides the default, but it's true that this doesn't work in cases where you want to force RANDOM_SEED to be False. For that reason, I agree that #1 is the best option. The flag is not vital but it's nice to have, and it's also nice to be able to set the default setting for long periods of time.