Re: [Bug-gnubg] Simpler PRNG

[Philippe Michel]

On Thu, 15 Jan 2015, Michael Petch wrote:

> I'm in agreement with Ian Shaw that a decrease in the options of random
> number generators is probably more ideal. If others wish to weigh in on
> this I am more than happy to listen.

Available RNGs are :

ansi
bsd

Mediocre generators from system libraries. They could probably be dropped. 
Code simplification would be minimal.

md5

It could probably be dropped. Some code simplification but the MD5 hash 
routines are still needed for something else.

isaac

Apparently the first strong RNG used by gnubg before Mersenne. It is used 
in some other places (generating graphical patterns, choosing where the 
dice land on the board, etc...) where one of the generators from libc 
would probably be good enough. Interesting to drop since it is included in 
source form, not from a library.

bbs

The most profitable to drop. It causes a dependency on the gmp library. On 
the other hand, it brings a feature (cryptographically secure) that none 
of the other generators has. How important is it to have this ?

mersenne
manual
file
random.org

Keep them.