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To: PHP internals <internals@lists.php.net>
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Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2016 15:09:12 +0100
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] RNG fixes
From: rowan.collins@gmail.com (Rowan Collins)

On 23/06/2016 14:57, Nikita Popov wrote:
> Whatever we do, please maintain the invariant that mt_rand() >= rand()
> in terms of quality. I recommend doing this by making mt_rand() == rand().

The relationship that I feel is poorly defined at the moment is 
random_int() vs mt_rand(). There isn't actually anything in the manual 
to say when *not* to use it. So the implication seems to be random_int() 
 > mt_rand() > rand().

I would prefer something like random_fast_int() == mt_rand() == rand(), 
with clear documentation on when to use random_fast_int() instead of 
random_int(), and a note on the others that "since 7.2, mt_rand() is an 
alias for random_fast_int()" etc. (Not wedded to the name 
random_fast_int, we can bikeshed that later.)

Regards,
-- 
Rowan Collins
[IMSoP]