CHANGELOG for Crypt::Random
           $Id: Changes,v 1.6 2001/07/12 15:59:46 vipul Exp $

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