From: Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>
To: Jason Rumney <jasonr@gnu.org>
Cc: Achim Gratz <Stromeko@nexgo.de>, emacs-devel@gnu.org
Subject: Re: random doesn't feel very random
Date: Sun, 02 Sep 2012 09:08:13 -0400 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <jwvk3wc7f1q.fsf-monnier+emacs@gnu.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <87627wsj83.fsf@gnu.org> (Jason Rumney's message of "Sun, 02 Sep 2012 20:27:24 +0800")
>>> One thing that wasn't discussed was how to set the
>>> seed, for people who want to do debugging and who want
>>> repeatable random sequences.
>> I don't think it's a good idea to be able to change the global PRNG
>> state in general.
> For some uses of pseudo-random numbers, repeatability is desirable.
Other than debugging, such repeatability needs generally imply the need
to use a separate PRNG, rather than the global one.
> Not every problem that requires randomness involves security.
Lack of repeatability is a feature that's not only needed by security,
but by the need to behave differently each time, otherwise the user
gets bored.
And AFAICT, all uses of `random' in Elisp currently fall in this camp.
Stefan
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2012-09-02 13:08 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 43+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2012-08-24 5:47 random doesn't feel very random Ivan Kanis
2012-08-24 6:22 ` Tassilo Horn
2012-08-24 17:19 ` random doesn't feel very random, random doesn't feel very random, " Ivan Kanis
2012-08-24 18:50 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2012-08-25 7:46 ` Ivan Kanis
2012-08-24 6:30 ` Leo
2012-08-24 22:48 ` Richard Stallman
2012-08-24 22:57 ` Andreas Schwab
2012-08-25 20:55 ` Richard Stallman
2012-08-25 23:25 ` Leo
2012-08-26 13:12 ` Richard Stallman
2012-08-26 14:24 ` Achim Gratz
2012-08-26 23:22 ` Leo
2012-08-27 0:50 ` Stefan Monnier
2012-08-27 6:31 ` Simon Leinen
2012-08-27 3:41 ` Richard Stallman
2012-08-27 4:48 ` Stefan Monnier
2012-08-31 9:41 ` Eli Zaretskii
2012-08-31 15:06 ` Stefan Monnier
2012-08-31 15:23 ` chad
2012-08-31 17:50 ` Eli Zaretskii
2012-08-31 19:43 ` Stefan Monnier
2012-09-01 1:18 ` Paul Eggert
2012-09-01 7:19 ` Achim Gratz
2012-09-01 13:19 ` Paul Eggert
2012-09-04 19:19 ` Nix
2012-09-04 20:07 ` Paul Eggert
2012-09-04 20:11 ` Nix
2012-09-02 12:27 ` Jason Rumney
2012-09-02 13:08 ` Stefan Monnier [this message]
2012-09-01 7:22 ` Ivan Kanis
2012-09-01 11:13 ` joakim
2012-08-31 23:04 ` Leo
2012-08-27 5:17 ` Achim Gratz
2012-08-31 9:42 ` Eli Zaretskii
2012-08-31 15:07 ` Stefan Monnier
2012-08-31 17:50 ` Eli Zaretskii
2012-08-26 9:06 ` Ivan Kanis
2012-08-24 7:03 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2012-08-24 9:10 ` Paul Eggert
2012-08-24 17:45 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2012-08-24 12:45 ` OT: appropriateness of "random" for playlist generation (was: random doesn't feel very random) Jeremiah Dodds
2012-08-24 14:37 ` random doesn't feel very random Drew Adams
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