Well, i have come to realize that the randomize playlist function in the XMMS player sucks ***. So i got the source and looked at it, and now i see why. I want to rewrite it so that it never will have randomize the list and have 2 songs that were adjacent be adjacent after randomization. Here is the source for the shuffle function:
static GList *playlist_shuffle_list(GList *list)
{
/* Caller should holde playlist mutex */
/*
* Note that this doesn't make a copy of the original list.
* The pointer to the original list is not valid after this
* fuction is run.
*/
gint len = g_list_length(list);
gint i, j;
GList *node, **ptrs;
if (!len)
return NULL;
ptrs = g_new(GList *, len);
for (node = list, i = 0; i < len; node = g_list_next(node), i++)
ptrs[i] = node;
for (i = 1; i < len; i++)
{
j = random() % (len - i);
list->prev = ptrs[i + j];
ptrs[i + j]->next = list;
list = ptrs[i + j];
ptrs[i + j] = ptrs[i];
}
list->prev = NULL;
g_free(ptrs);
return list;
}
i was thinking of perhaps getting the seed from the clock. but if i remember correctly someone else on here a while ago was saying there are better methods. anyone have any ideas?
ps. i would like to have it prompt the user for a mouse movement and then do something with the start and enpoints, but i only know how to do that in win32 and C++ . i've never actually programmed a C program.
this is far from a final answer but just thought i'd chuck this in:
from this pdf http://islab.oregonstate.edu/koc/ece575/rsalabs/bulletn1.pdf
One essential ingredient in producing good random
numbers in software, then, is to use a good PRNG. (psuedo random number generator)
Important to note is that although the PRNG may
produce statistically good looking output, it also has
to withstand analysis to be considered strong. Since
the one included with your compiler or operating
system may or may not be, we recommend you don?t
use it. Instead, use a PRNG that has been verified
to have a high degree of randomness. RSA?s BSAFE
toolkit uses the MD5 message digest function as a
random number generator. BSAFE uses a state value
that is digested with MD5. The strength of this approach
relies on MD5 being a one-way function ?
from the random output bytes it is difficult to determine
the state value, and hence the other output
bytes remain secure. Similar generators can be constructed
with other hash functions, such as SHA1.
i'd like to know some good code to get a random number out of mouse jiggles. i always thought maybe you could collect the mouse movements to use for the number continually, rather than asking the user to jiggle your mouse round for half a minute now, like pgp does
interestingly, the PGP 8 source code for mac and windwos is available for download on the pgp site. might be worth looking into? http://www.pgp.com/products/sourcecode.html
Originally posted by balance
i'd like to know some good code to get a random number out of mouse jiggles. i always thought maybe you could collect the mouse movements to use for the number continually, rather than asking the user to jiggle your mouse round for half a minute now, like pgp does
http://www.pgp.com/products/sourcecode.html
-thanks for the links, i'll check them out. as for the above quote, i was thinking of a few different things u could do. one could be to have the user push down the button and draw an imaginary line to some other place on the screen and then release the mouse button at this point. when they first click the button down u could get the system time and wehn they release u could get the system time. then use this in combination with the distance traveled from downclick to upclick and calculate the velocity(think that's right word, damn i havent had physics in a while) and use that for the seed. hmm,i think i will try that out and see how it works.
i tried my above theory. it works alright, the numbers have a pretty large range. here is the pertinent code:
case WM_LBUTTONDOWN :
// x = LOWORD (lParam);
// y = HIWORD (lParam)
// wParam: shift, ctrl key and button flags
tic1 = GetTickCount();
x = LOWORD (lParam);
y = HIWORD (lParam);
InvalidateRect (hWnd, NULL, TRUE);
return 0;
if(ticR!=0)
result = dist/ticR;
sprintf(txt,"The velocity was %u ", result);
text = txt;
MessageBox(hWnd,text,"dist",MB_OK);
InvalidateRect (hWnd, NULL, TRUE);
return 0;
- i was thinking a better idea might be to WM_MOUSEMOVE or whatever it is that responds to mouse movement. and each movement increment a distance counter, and then when the user clicks down the button have that signify the "end of movement" and do some calculations from there involving the total distance travelled and time it took...
It's a good idea to use mouse's movements to generate randomn numbers, this system is used also by some version PGP.
Some months ago I wrote this code for a linux game, it's simple but works fine: