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Re: [Chicken-hackers] Patch to use better PRNG on BSD's


From: Jim Ursetto
Subject: Re: [Chicken-hackers] Patch to use better PRNG on BSD's
Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2012 15:47:33 -0500

We've been through this conversation multiple times.  For example,
I already proposed a patch using random -- which is way more portable
than arc4random (!!) -- and it was rejected.

The ultimate solution is a self-contained PRNG of reasonable
quality in core.

Or users may use the random-bsd egg in the meantime.

On Apr 10, 2012, at 3:18 PM, Peter Bex wrote:

> On Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 07:15:44PM +0300, Timo Myyrä wrote:
>> I noticed that chicken uses old rand / srand functions when better
>> alternatives are present.
>> Patch makes BSD's use arc4random instead of rand.
> 
> NetBSD doesn't have arc4random_uniform either, so that'd need to be added
> to the test.
> 
> I think a cleaner and more robust way is to actually put a PRNG inside
> Chicken itself.  That way all platforms benefit from a good random
> generator instead of it being a hit-and-miss situation.  Chicken ought
> to provide as good an abstraction over nasty annoying OS details as it
> can.
> 
> Having said that, your patch is an unmistakable improvement over the
> current situation, especially on MacOS X, assuming they bothered to
> implement arc4random properly this time...
> 
>> I'm not 100% sure this is correct so test, at least the Mac OS X part
>> as it doesn't have arc4random_uniform() function.
>> Builds and seems to work OK on OpenBSD when applied to 4.7.0 version.
> 
> Your patch got mangled somewhere along the way.  I think it might be the
> mailinglist software at nongnu.org that did that.  Please put patches in
> your mail as a separate attachment instead of inlining them.
> 
> Cheers,
> Peter
> -- 
> http://sjamaan.ath.cx
> --
> "The process of preparing programs for a digital computer
> is especially attractive, not only because it can be economically
> and scientifically rewarding, but also because it can be an aesthetic
> experience much like composing poetry or music."
>                                                       -- Donald Knuth
> 
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