In case anyone's interested in the Random/Randomize issues, here's a good article that describes the core problems in the context of much-more-stringent, but now also much more common, cryptographic requirements. This article later became a chapter in their security book. It even directly addresses the Borland compilers directly.
Make your software behave: Playing the numbers Truly secure software needs an accurate random number generator Contents: How do pseudo-random number generators work? Borland's implementation of Random () Sewing the seeds of destruction Try not to be so predictable How to cheat in online gambling How to read "secret" Netscape messages Gary McGraw, Reliable Software Technologies John Viega, Reliable Software Technologies 04 Apr 2000 Computers, being completely deterministic machines, are particularly bad at behaving randomly (software missteps aside). So when programmers need a truly random number, or a series of them, they must approximate random number generation by various means. In this installment, the first of three articles on the subject, Gary McGraw and John Viega examine how it's done, and present a variety of tricks that can be accomplished as a result. In the next installment in this series, Gary and John will discuss how to approach truly random number generation through hardware. http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/s-playing/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by the 2008 JavaOne(SM) Conference Don't miss this year's exciting event. There's still time to save $100. Use priority code J8TL2D2. http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;198757673;13503038;p?http://java.sun.com/javaone _______________________________________________ synalist-public mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/synalist-public
