Re: Random number seed generation

That is not an issue as that would be fixed easily. But I need to call
the random functions from different places and that code would have to
keep track of the last generated number. Also, when scaling the value
(p.e.) to boolean I would need the original unscaled value for the
next call. So results from any functions like that would have to
return (combined) two values or would need two calls, one for the
random number and one for the scaling.

So time in millis from 1970 something would be a nice 'seed' and much
easier to work with.

Michel

On Thu, Dec 9, 2010 at 4:58 PM, Tony Graham
<Tony.Graham@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 09 2010 14:04:57 +0000, michel.hendriksen@xxxxx wrote:
>> I'm using Saxon9he processor XSLT 2.0, and I am trying to get some
>> random numbers. I'm currently using fxsl/random for this. The problem
>> is that it needs a seed.
>> I tried using current time stuff but that doesn't change during the
>> transfomation using the stylesheet.. So I tried an extension function
>> to cal to Java but that doesn't seem to work. Examples are probably
>
> That would require "Extensibility using reflexion", which isn't in Saxon
> 9 HE.  See http://www.saxonica.com/feature-matrix.xml (ideally after it
> has a stylesheet PI added to it).
>
>> XSLT 1.0 but should be ok.
>>
>> Is this possible on Home Edition? Did things change in transition to
>> 2.0? Is there an other way to get some seed for the random function? I
>
> More in the transition from 'B' to 'HE', IIRC.
>
>> can't resuse the value as I would have to keep it somewhere in between
>> calls. One idea would be to use generate-id() but that gives a string.
>> Could be useful when this is always convertible to a number.
>>
>> I'm running the processor from a Java application now. It is a
>> learning project and should be able to run Genetic Algorithm
>> functionality, so lots of random stuff is needed.
>
> Just pass a seed generated with Java as a stylesheet parameter.
>
> Regards,
>
>
> Tony Graham                         Tony.Graham@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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