[swift-evolution] [Proposal] Random Unification

[Erica Sadun]

On Dec 1, 2017, at 11:23 PM, David Waite <david at alkaline-solutions.com> wrote:
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> 
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>> On Dec 1, 2017, at 11:05 AM, Erica Sadun via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org <mailto:swift-evolution at swift.org>> wrote:
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>> I'd like to put forth that Gameplay Kit offers a perfectly cromulent model of random number generation and API. Why not take that as a starting point, Swiftify it so it becomes a cross platform solution, and then apply the specific questions of sequences, collections, and indices as a second step?  
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>> I don't support intermingling random functionality with existing core types.
>> 
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> GameplayKit randomization has a number of API deficiencies that we can’t easily/efficiently solve by wrapping it in Swift.
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> Most significantly, it is not designed to support any cryptographic operations (which I believe is why they never added a nextBytes() or equivalent method).
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> For GameplayKit this is fine - the design focuses on being able to get the distribution appropriate for your game, and being able to have identical pseudorandom number sequences for each device in a multiplayer scenario. They went as far as to require all random sources to support NSSecureCoding so that they may be persisted and/or serialized over the wire, which precludes a GKRandomSource from being based on the system random sources.
> 
> -DW

I wasn't suggesting wrapping as that would not provide a cross platform solution. Instead of re-inventing the wheel, we may profit from the approaches already explored and real-world tested in prior art and existing standards.

-- E

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