Random and whrandom

[Alex Martelli]

"Tim Peters" <tim.one at home.com> wrote in message
news:mailman.980371172.18811.python-list at python.org...
> [posted & mailed]
>
> [Alex Martelli, sorts out the random/whrandom mess -- thanks!]

Thank *YOU* for the instructive-as-usual rap-on-the-knuckles (AND
for the new getstate/setstate stuff in random.py, too).

> The "abstract random number generator interface" stuff has been removed
from
    [snip]
> Python's core randomization facilities are too meager to justify all this
> conceptual hair, and newbies have been stumbling over the overly-complex
> docs ever since ("Define the universe.  Give 3 examples." <wink>).
    [snip]
> [Alex]
> > ONE module, I think, would not be enough -- the distinction
> > between abstract and concrete IS important enough, after all,
> > to be worth a little bit of effort.
>
> It's been counter-productive so far, so got dropped.  "The best"
pure-Python

I'll write out in longhand 100 times: "Do the simplest thing that
could possibly work", "You ain't gonna need it", "Progress is fastest
if we just do what we need to do now: leave the future to the future"
AND "Sufficient unto the day is the trouble thereof" (three by Ron
Jeffries, one by another pretty-worthy Prophet).


> suite of state-of-the-art RNGs is Ivan Frohne's rv.py, and if someone
wants
> to revive an ARNGI crusade they would do well to mimic his excellent
design.
> Alas, while it's still possible to find rv's *docs* on the web, I can't
find
> the actual code anymore (and the Parnassus link is dead).

As partial atonement for the sin and heresy of "Defending
Unnecessary Complexity In The Name Of Unwarranted Generality",
I've taken advantage of Frohne's very-generous copyright
provisions to put an rv.zip containing his rv.py 1.1 (from
November 1998) up for download at http://www.fenx.com/alex/rv.zip
(it's not a particularly fast or well-connected machine, but
the only one I can place something for anonymous dowload
right now -- I hope somebody will pick it up and place it
somewhere better accessible!).


Alex