Re: Random number generation : requirements

How timely. I'd just been reading about how the ESAPI random number
generation is broken...


On Tue, May 6, 2014 at 10:13 AM, Dimitre Novatchev dnovatchev@xxxxxxxxx <
xsl-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> This has been implemented in pure XSLT 1 and is part of FXSL since 2002:
>
>
> http://fxsl.sourceforge.net/articles/Random/Casting%20the%20Dice%20with%20FXSL-htm.htm
>
> There is generation of the "next" random number from the "current"
> (essentially  a functional composition, where the n-th random number
> is f^N(seed), generation of a random sequence, generation of a
> sequence of numbers with probability distributions over
> non-overlapping intervals, etc.
>
> There is even Monte-Carlo Integration method - based test :)
>
> Cheers,
> Dimitre
>
>
>
> On Tue, May 6, 2014 at 9:54 AM, Michael Kay mike@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> <xsl-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > The W3C WGs are looking at the idea of introducing a random-number
> function of some kind in XPath 3.1. The challenge of course is making this
> both usable and a pure function with no side-effects. We have various
> design ideas which we need to test against requirements.
> >
> > If you have any applications that use or need such a function, please
> could I have a brief description of the way it uses random numbers, e.g.
> just wanting a single random number, a random permutation of 52 integers,
> an arbitrary sequence of random numebrs for test data generation, etc.
> >
> > If you're currently using the EXSLT random-sequence() function, please
> share your experience with it.
> >
> > Michael Kay
> > Saxonica