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Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2007 13:26:34 -0400
Sender: david.coallier@gmail.com
To: "Antony Dovgal" <antony@zend.com>
Cc: "Keryx Web" <webmaster@keryx.se>, internals@lists.php.net
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] libc and random functions
From: davidc@php.net ("David Coallier")

On 7/19/07, David Coallier <davidc@php.net> wrote:
> On 7/19/07, Antony Dovgal <antony@zend.com> wrote:
> > On 19.07.2007 17:41, Keryx Web wrote:
> > > Ilia Alshanetsky wrote:
> > >> Do you have a patch?
> > >
> > > Also @Antony Dovgal in the "let blocks" thread
> > >
> > > Short answer: No.
> > >
> > > The reason I posted my suggestions on this list was that a while ago I
> > > had a few ideas as to how PHP could be improved.
> >
> > What I don't understand about the crypt thing you propose - is what problem are you trying to fix this way?
> >
> > If there are no problems, then please don't improve anything not broken.
> > "No reasons to keep it" is wrong, there is at least one reason to keep it as is - it works fine.
> >

Sorry I did not quite answer your question in my email + patch. Yes it
works correctly as it is, however, with this patch, the random numbers
being generated are using an algorithm (Mersenne Twister) that allows
us to give more randomness if I may use the term. So it simply doesn't
*fix* anything, but improves random number generation.

There are various reasons why people are using random generated
numbers and mt_ is more random than rand*. Simply it. It does not
**fix** something that is broken, simply improves it.

Yes we could still use a rock to make fire, and it still works fine,
but might as well use matches, lenses or lighters. It's more effective
and faster.

> > --
> > Wbr,
> > Antony Dovgal
> >
> > --
> > PHP Internals - PHP Runtime Development Mailing List
> > To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
> >
> >
>
> Here are three patches against HEAD [1], 5_2 [2] and the pecl
> repository [3] (Do not shout just yet, I'll explain).
>
> The idea of the patches are pretty simple, aliasing rand, srand,
> getrandmax to mt_rand, mt_srand, and mt_getrandmax. The goal is simply
> having a better number generation. Nothing fancier, or more different,
> but simply it. It works great (compiling great against 5_2, HEAD) and
> Crisitan Rodriguez also tried the compilation.
>
> After a bit of discussion with Jani, I came to realize that keeping
> the wrapper macro for php_rand, php_srand is plain useless. Yes some
> pecl extensions do rely on them (and for those who do, I also provided
> a patch [3]). We both realized that there's not many extensions
> relying on php_rand and php_srand thus removed it completely..
>
> Here are the patches:
>
> [1] HEAD : http://dev.agoraproduction.com/php/php6/head-mt-changes.diff
> [2] 5_2     : http://dev.agoraproduction.com/php/5_2/5.2-mt-changes.diff
> [3] PECL : http://dev.agoraproduction.com/php/php6/pecl-mt-changes.diff
>
>
> Please note that the mt-changes patches are not only changing
> ext/standard/* but also the ext/* relying on them. (soap, mcrypt) but
> also a small change in main/reentrancy.c both in 5_2 and HEAD.
>
> Thanks,
>
> --
> David Coallier,
> Founder & Software Architect,
> Agora Production (http://agoraproduction.com)
> 51.42.06.70.18
>



-- 
David Coallier,
Founder & Software Architect,
Agora Production (http://agoraproduction.com)
51.42.06.70.18