Re: [Bug-gnubg] Re: GNUBG and Random.org

[Joern Thyssen]

On Sun, Aug 04, 2002 at 03:21:11PM +0000, Øystein Johansen wrote

> Some drawbacks.
> Since this random numbers are transferred from random.org's computer to
> your computer, I believe it can be a bit slow (?), which will make it
> unfavorable for rollouts and other time consuming tasks which needs dice
> rolls. 

I agree.

> If you have a dial up line you will also need to stay online, to
> get new dice rolls continuously.

It fetches 500 dice at a time. I would say that an average game is 40
rolls, i.e., 80 dice. So the 500 dice fetched will cover approximately 6
games, or a 5-7 pt match. 

It's quite easy to enlarge the buffer to hold many more dice, so it
would be interesting for modem users as well. For example, 5000 dice
would allow you to play for hours. However, random.org does take some
time to generate the dice depending on the server load, so 1000 dice may
be better.

But performing a huge rollout will probably not be an good idea.

> The windows issue:
> Since the dice generator connects to a distant server at random.org, it
> uses unix sockets to connect. The numbers are transferred by tcp/ip. The
> compiler I'm using to generate the windows executables does not support
> unix sockets. If I should be able to compile support for this dice
> generator, I must first translate the socket part to winsock instead of
> unix sockets. I don't even think I have a computer to make such
> translation, since my home computer runs Linux. I won't be able to do
> any testing if I try.
> 
> > Is this likely to be supported in the windows version anytime soon?
> 
> I'm sorry to say: You can't expect that to happen soon, no! If you
> really think you need this dice generator, you should try a Unix/Linux
> operating system.

An alternative solution could be a RNG that reads the number from a text
file. It should be quite easy to implement.

Jørn

-- 
Joern Thyssen, PhD
Vendsysselgade 3, 3., DK-9000 Aalborg, Denmark
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