Re: [help-GIFT] Seeding of random number generator in GIFT

[David Squire]

Wolfgang Mueller wrote:

> Hi, David,
> > It has been on my mind for some time to point out that the random number
> > generator is not seeded (with something like PID) each time that the GIFT
> > server is started. This means that I get the same sequence of "random"
> > images every time the server is restarted.
> >
> > Whilst this is actually quite handy when doing development and debugging,
>
> ...which is the reason why I let that in the code...

[snip]

> > Might I suggest that an
> > appropriate line be added for this,
> I put that on the batch.
> > and that a command line option be added
> > so that it could be disabled if desired when testing?
> If any option, this would be rather a config file option, I guess. Except if
> you want it to happen for ALL query engines.

The reason that I would prefer it to be a command line option is so that it is
not necessary to recompile in order to change this behaviour. From my
experience of development and debugging of extensions to the GIFT, this would
be far preferable. It's not as if it's going to add any overhead...

Cheers,

David


--
Dr. David McG. Squire, Postgraduate Research Coordinator (Caulfield)
Computer Science and Software Engineering, Monash University, Australia
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~davids/   http://viper.unige.ch/
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