[XeTeX] Random number primitives

[Apostolos Syropoulos]

>
> That's true except that as pdftex and luatex have this already and have had
> for years, in this particular instance it's playing catchup that is
> being suggested.
> Not promoting novel functionality.
> 

So just because the design in pdftex and luatex was conservative, if not flawed,
it doesn't mean we should follow their "lead". The point here is to produce
pseudo-random numbers. How they will be produced is something that the end user
should not worry about. In addition, it would be a nice opportunity for pdftex
and luatex to "upgrade".  

 
>
> Not really. If the main use cases are met by the existing code then engine
> differences are just extra work for the maintainers of the macro format
> to hide to provide a consistent interface to the end user.
> 

This is a fallacy! Just becauce LaTeX can process UTF-8 encoded input files,
it doesn't mean XeTeX is useless! And there is no extra code. It would be just
a simple system call. So instead of implementing random with a call to 


long random(void)


one should implement it with a call to 


long lrand48(void)

A.S.
----------------------
Apostolos Syropoulos
Xanthi, Greece