I think it would be more usefull to have some generator behaving like Stream.
In this particular case, Random is already anamorphic to a Stream:

Matrix row: 2 column: 5 contents: (Random new next: 10).

Nicolas

2009/5/21 Ramiro Diaz Trepat <ramiro at diaztrepat.name>:
> Hi Jerome,
> Igor also replied with comments regarding the proper use of matrices, so I
> know now that I must have not been clear in my original mail.   Apologies
> for that.
> I was not interested in discussing the Matrix protocol, but weather or not
> did people consider it useful to add a method that provides the same
> functionality as #collect: but without the argument, basically as a method
> called #timesCollect: of the Integer class, much in the same fashion as
> #timesRepeat:
> With this method one could write code that produces the same result as:
> (1 to: n) collect: [ :i | random next: m ]
> as
> n timesCollect: [ random next: m ]
> which does not force the user to visibly create the Interval nor to use a
> one argument block when the argument is not needed.
> My intention, hence, was only to ask if people would consider it a nice to
> have method on the Integer class, as a sibling of #timesRepeat:
> Cheers
>
>
> On Thu, May 21, 2009 at 1:11 AM, Jerome Peace <peace_the_dreamer at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Ramiro,
>>
>>
>> >Ramiro Diaz Trepat ramiro at diaztrepat.name
>> >Wed May 20 08:01:11 UTC 2009 asks:
>> >
>> >I have a simple question regarding the use of a proper idiom.I had to
>> > create
>> >a matrix (n X m) of random values and I used a line similar to this one:
>> >
>> >NMatrix withRows: ((1 to: n) collect: [ :i | random next: m ]).
>> >
>> >Since Smalltalk is so neat for its collection handling, I obviously did
>> > not
>> >like to write that line.
>> >I thought that I did not want to explicitly create the interval, nor use
>> > a
>> >block that requires an
>> >argument that I also don't use.
>> >The question, finally, is if there an elegant way of replicating the
>> >behaviour of #collect: but
>> >without the argument?
>> >In my case, I thought it would be great for Integer to have something
>> > like
>> >#timesCollect:
>> >that would allow me to rewrite the line above as:
>> >
>> >NMatrix withRows: (n timesCollect: [ random next: m ])
>> >
>> >Does anyone else think that this would be an useful method to have?
>>
>> In a workspace evaluate:
>>
>> picker := Random new .
>>
>> (Matrix rows: 2 columns: 3 ) collect: [ :each | picker next ] .
>>
>> result:
>>
>>  a Matrix
>> (0.2668126189461036 0.319686627164337 0.973142751014392
>>  0.610216298890401 0.905335450966533 0.97292439452043)
>>
>> You may wish to study the Matrix class and see what else it can do.
>> The class is a recent contribution by someone who had a need for it.
>>
>> Hth,
>>
>> Yours in curiosity and service, --Jerome Peace
>>
>>
>>
>>
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