CHANGELOG for Crypt::Random
$Id: Changes,v 1.6 2001/07/12 15:59:46 vipul Exp $
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1.54 June 3, 2021
* Removed a superfluous call to makerandom_itv() thanks to Larry
Leszczynski <larryl@emailplus.org>.
* Improved makerandom_itv test to ensure generated numbers are in the
intterval.
* Actually include t/chisquare.t
1.52 December 22, 2018
* Add a chi square statistical test. t/chisquare.t
* Uniform can be passed to the constructor of Crypt::Random::Generator.
This should be the default, and will likely be in the next release.
* Fixed minor bugs & typos.
1.51 December 22, 2018
* Test no longer looks for non-eq of two generated numbers as these can be
correctly the same if test is run enough number of times.
https://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=99880
* Removed outdated dependency info.
https://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=94441
* Removed /dev/random read from the test, as it can hang when there is
insufficient entropy.
https://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=30423
* Removed potentially unsafe include in bin/makerandom.
https://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=128062
1.25 March 07, 2005
* Crypt::Random now uses a BEGIN block when exporting its
functions. There was a circular reference between
Crypt::Random and Crypt::Random::Generator, and depending on
the order the modules were used in, it lead to an 'Undefined
subroutine' error. Patch by ceeshek@cpan.org.
1.24 March 07, 2005
* Removed int() from one of the computations to make
"forbidden division t_REAL % t_INT" error disappear.
1.23 June 02, 2004
* Another patch by Micheal Schwern to make the File provider faster.
Instead of sysread'ing, a byte at a time, we read the required number
of bytes in one go.
1.22 June 01, 2004
* Patch by Michael Schwern to replace open/read with sysopen()/sysread()
so Crypt::Random doesn't waste entropy in /dev/u?random by reading a
buffer and throwing away unnecessary data.
1.21 May 24, 2004
* Patch by dorian to workaround Math::Pari's serialization problem.
1.20 April 21, 2004
* Added a Uniform option to makerandom() and makerandom_itv() that
doesn't set the high bit of the generated random, and produces
a number uniformally distributed in the interval. Thanks to Len
Budney for pointing this out.
Here's his explaination:
If Size is increased to 4 bits, then of 16 values, there are 5 ways
to get a 1, 5 ways to get a 2, but 6 ways to get a 0. Thus 0 will
occur 6/5 = 1.2 times more often than 1 or 2. Increasing size to 6
bits, there are (2^6-1)/3 ways to get a 1 or 2, but there are
(2^6+2)/3 ways to get a 0, and a 0 will occur more often by a
factor of (2^6+2)/(2^6-1).
If Size is then bumped up to 40, as makerandom_itv does, then 0
will still happen more often than 1 or 2, but now it happens only
(2^40+2)/(2^40-1) times more often, or about 1 + 2.7*10^-12 times
more often. This difference is too small to observe in a practical
experiment, but it is still a deviation from uniformity.
What's going on is that when ($b-$a) does not evenly divide 2^N,
the outcome ($b-1) is less likely to happen than the outcome $a.
The case that Size=2, $a=0 and $b=3 illustrates this most clearly.
This is easy to correct: we simply want to make the largest value
of makerandom() to be evenly divisible by ($b-$a), by ignoring any
result which is >= (2^Size - (2^Size % ($b-$a))). The second
attached file includes the fix, which you will see produces uniform
probabilities if you perform the test given above.
1.13 March 11, 2003
* Changed the die() message at provider contruction to include the
name of the provider.
1.12 January, 2003
* Updated documentation.
* Removed all /home/vipul/* entries from @INC.
1.11 July 12, 2001
* Applied a patch by Benjamin Trott to make egd detection more
robust.
1.10 July 09, 2001
* Fix in _pickprovider(), thanks to Benjamin Trott for the patch.
1.08 June 22, 2001
* Small fixes.
1.07 June 21, 2001
* A bug fix in ::Provider::egd::get_data().
1.05 June 21, 2001
* Integrated and extended Benjamin Trott's patches to add provider
architechture and egd support to Crypt::Random.
* Wrote Crypt::Random::Generator, and OO interface to Crypt::Random that
automagically selects a suitable provider.
* Wrote a Provider that uses perl's rand(). This provider is used when
no other stronger provider is available.
0.34 April 17, 2001
* Wrote exportable makerandom_octet() that generates random octet
strings. See documentation for details.
* Wrote a test for makerandom_octet() in t/octet_string.t