Re: [Bug-gnubg] Serious bug: Random.org - Important Request for Comments

[Michael Petch]

On 2015-01-13 1:11 PM, Dan Fandrich wrote:
> If you want https support without rolling your own crypto, there's no way
> around another dependency.  Even if that dependency is normally supplied with
> the OS.  And as long as this support is optional, there's really no issue.

Yes, and for some added libraries and dependencies may be an issue for
our downstream maintainers. random.org has been supported a long time
without any dependency, and random.org happens to be a popular choice
for Backgammon roll generation (since many people incorrectly believe
that Mersenne twister isn't random because it is just a PRNG).

For those who may not have the development libraries for libcurl (if we
use it) for instance they may wonder why they no longer have Random.org
support in the settings and options and yet they built it the way they
always do.

Random.org happens to be one of those optional features that a lot of
people demand be present. In the past people got this feature as long as
their environment supported sockets (which is pretty much most
environments by default).

So it is worthy to at least note that supporting Random.org will require
new dependencies and that should be communicated to the downstream
maintainers. So your view that it really is a non issue is not one I
agree with.

-- 
Michael Petch
GNU Backgammon Maintainer / Developer
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