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Date:      Sun, 2 Feb 2003 18:43:56 +0300
From:      "Andrey A. Chernov" <ache@nagual.pp.ru>
To:        Mark Murray <mark@grondar.org>
Cc:        "Jeroen C. van Gelderen" <jeroen@vangelderen.org>, phk@FreeBSD.ORG, current@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: rand() is broken
Message-ID:  <20030202154356.GA65166@nagual.pp.ru>
In-Reply-To: <200302021532.h12FWWaX047973@grimreaper.grondar.org>
References:  <F76A9070-36B1-11D7-A58F-000393754B1C@vangelderen.org> <200302021532.h12FWWaX047973@grimreaper.grondar.org>

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On Sun, Feb 02, 2003 at 15:32:32 +0000, Mark Murray wrote:
> "Jeroen C. van Gelderen" writes:
> > Wouldn't it be a good idea to change the name at the same time? Or 
> > should it be retained for compatibility reasons with other BSDs?
> > 
> > Currently the name needlessly exposes implementation detail. Callers 
> > expect good, cheap, non-blocking randomness but don't give a hoot if 
> > that is actually provided trough use of RC4 or not. I see no reason why 
> > the implementation could be changed if the contract is maintained.
> 
> Good point. We can re-implement random() internally with arc4rand().
> 
> Objections?

We can't, simple because sequence must be repeated for the same seed 
across the calls.

-- 
Andrey A. Chernov
http://ache.pp.ru/

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