Re: [PATCH 1/1] zsh/random

[Clinton Bunch <cdb_zsh@zentaur.org>]

Also is anyone able to test on AIX or HP-UX?  Since neither have 
getrandom or arc4random and would fall back to /dev/urandom, I'd like to 
make sure they work.  I'm hoping someone else can test so I don't have 
to spend money to rent an AIX or HPE VM.

On 6/17/2024 18:52, Clinton Bunch wrote:
> On 6/17/2024 09:43, Jun. T wrote:
>> # Please do not separate a patch into [0/1] and [1/1].
>> # Some people reply to [0/1], others to [1/1].
>>
>> What is the current status of this patch?
> It's been waiting on feedback
>>
>> Here are my comments:
>>
>>
>>> 2024/04/28 4:31, Clinton Bunch <cdb_zsh@zentaur.org> wrote:
>>> Doc/Zsh/mod_random.yo
>>> +item(tt(SRANDOM)) (
>>> +A random positive 32-bit integer between 0 and 4,294,967,295.
>> 'between 0 and 4,294,967,295'
>> I think $SRAND can be 0; can it be 4,294,967,295, or only to
>> 4,294,967,295-1?
> 4,294,967,295 is 2**32-1 (odd number)
>>
>>> +item(tt(zrand_float+LPAR()RPAR())) (
>>> +Returns a random floating point number between 0 and 1.
>> 'between 0 and 1' Is this inclusive?
>> Can zrand_float() return 1?
> Yes. it can return both 0 and 1.  I've specified inclusive in the 
> documentation.
>>> +item(tt(zrand_int)+LPAR()tt(upper), tt(lower), tt(inclusive)RPAR()) (
>>> +Returns a random integer between tt(lower) and tt(upper). All 
>>> parameters are
>>> +optional.  If none are specified it is equivalent to
>>> +tt(SRANDOM).
>>> +tt(inclusive) is a flag that controls whether the result is ever 
>>> equal to
>>> +tt(upper).  By default it is not.
>> If 'inclusive' is 0 (off) by default, then
>> 0 <= zrand_int() < 4,294,967,295 by default.
>> Is this equivalent to $SRANDOM?
> In the code it calls the same function as SRANDOM when no arguments 
> are given.
>>
>>> Src/Modules/random.c
>>> +#include <stdbool.h>
>>> +#include <stdint.h>
>> I guess stdbool.h is not used?
> Apparently I removed all places where I used a bool type
>>
>> I think including stdint.h (new in C99 but may exist in earlier
>> compilers) without #ifdef HAVE_STDINT_H is OK now, since we
>> are now using C99 as the C language standard, right?
>>
>>> +/* buffer to pre-load integers for SRANDOM to lessen the context 
>>> switches */
>>> +uint32_t rand_buff[8];
>> static uint32_t rand_buff[8];
>>
>>> +int
>>> +boot_(Module m)
>> UNUSED(m)
>>
>>
>>> Src/Modules/random.mdd
>>> +load=yes
>> Does this module really need be autoloadable? I don't know what are
>> the criteria that a module should be autoloadable.
> I would think we'd want at least the SRANDOM parameter autoloaded
>>
>>
>>> Test/V15random.ztst
>> I don't know whether zsh need to check the "quality" of the random
>> number. I guess the simple $RANDOM would also pass these tests.
> RANDOM would not pass these tests.  They test the difference between 
> the distribution of the generated values against the ideal equal 
> distribution.
>>
>> Maybe better to check that $SRANDOM is 'non-repeatable'?
> Since SRANDOM can't be set how would you prove non-repeatable?
>>
>> If we will do the quality check, then:
>>
>>> +  print -ru $ZTST_fd 'This test may take two seconds...'
>> Why two seconds? A few seconds, or something like that?
> I believe that was the result of timings during testing.  As I recall 
> the other tests were more specific than a few.
>>
>>> +  function calc_chi2() {
>>> +# Calculate Chi Squared
>> (snip)
>>> +       #echo
>>> +  }
>> Please remove several '#echo' (for debugging?).
> Yes, they were for debugging.
>>
>> You can convert the functions calc_chi2(), ligf() etc. into
>> math-functions by using 'functions -M'. Then you can call them as,
>> for example (( p = 1 - ligf(s, z)/gamma(s) ))
>>
>>> +0q:random integer $samples samples between 1-$n
>> The flag 'q' works only for the lines starting with < > or ?.
>> $samples and $n are not expanded.
> Okay explicit values used in messages.
>>
>> -- 
>> Jun
>
>
>