[boost] Re: Proposal: random number library

From: Jens Maurer (jmaurer_at_[hidden])
Date: 2000-02-21 19:59:57

Greg Colvin wrote:
> I've noticed that if your clock() function is fast enough you get
> no entropy at all, no matter how high you set nbits, and if it's
> slow enough you can get away with nbits < 8.
[...] 
> I also made a Win32-specific version that has the virtue of not
> tying up the CPU so much:
[...]

It looks like I have opened a can of worms with class random_device
in random.hpp.

It looks like it's highly platform-dependent stuff.  If it smells
like cryptography, it may not be without legal restrictions in some
countries.

All in all, I think I should remove it from random.hpp, copy the
code & documentation over to a new docvault directory crypt_random
and check out the Yarrow algorithm.
However, I've only got Linux, so I am not very well suited for
platform-specific development.

Jens Maurer.