[PHP-DEV] Re: [PHP-CVS] cvs: php4 / php.ini-dist php.ini-recommended From: Jeroen van Wolffelaar (jeroen <email protected>)
Date: 08/25/01

> > +; Default random number generator. Specify here which random number
generator
> > +; you want to use for the PHP-rand() function. Usually MT (Mersenne
Twister,
> > +; see http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.mt-rand.php) is the best
choice.
> > +; It is thread-safe, fast, and, quite important, mod and divide-free.
> > +; Possible values are 'system', 'mt' and 'lcg'
> > +random_number_generator = mt
>
> shouldn't the default be the backward compatible one?

Yes, and if you would have read my proposal, you would know that this
ini-setting is irrelevant for BC-issues. I even doubt wether it'd be such a
problem anyway: who wants to use the predicability of rand(), which is
always bad anyways? (non-thread safe, unknown by which other functions it is
used, and system-dependent). And who does want to use that, uses (1) an
undocumented feature, and (2) generally knows what he's doing, and is a bit
aware of PHP-internals, and probably knows about this changed when it is in
NEWS.

I am working of a perspective of a not-so-expert user, who uses rand() for
what it says: random numbers. THAT use of it should be as easy as possible,
without 'seeding' (WTF, most new users would say?, why is that needed?)

> tc

Jeroen 

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