[Newbies] Re: Tim's Fix for LargeIntger>>AtRandom

[Jerome Peace]

[Newbies] Re: Tim's Fix for LargeIntger>>AtRandom
was: [Newbies] Re: What's wrong with this statement?

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>Cerebus cerebus2 at gmail.com 
>Tue Aug 5 00:31:42 UTC 2008 
>
>Interestingly, UUIDGenerator creates 16 bytes of random using Random
>one bit at a time.
>
>I suspect there are entropy issues all through the image.

UUIDGenerator uses its own generator.
It reRandomizes its seed after going thru 100,000 bits.
So it won't won't run out.

Currently, for atRandom we use the community shared generator.

In any event it is not the main deal.
The problem was LargeInt was not using enough random bits.
That was a critical bug because you weren't getting what you thought 
you were to get, one of n equally random numbers.

The objection Randal raised is that now it is using too many.
That's IMO a red herring. There are always ways of generating
more random bits. It's not directly part of this problem.
If need be could be solved similarly to the way UUIDGenerator solves it.

Partial progress counts, and squeak is made for incremental 
programming.

When you get a fix you like post it to the mantis report and I'll look at it.


Yours in curiosity and service, --Jerome Peace


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