I recently wrote a blog post about my explorations into random number
generation from Elixir and Erlang. You can find it here:
https://hashrocket.com/blog/posts/the-adventures-of-generating-random-numbers-in-erlang-and-elixir
This led me to question why `:rand.seed` is not exposed from Elixir without
hitting Erlang directly. I think every time we send a user to learn
something about the intricacies of Erlang we are introducing a mental
overhead.
I would be happy to submit a pull request that will attempt to wrap
`:rand.seed` but figured I'd check with the core team first. My questions:
1. Why is `:rand.seed` not exposed from Elixir? is that by design?
2. If it should be exposed by Elixir where do you imagine it living?
`Kernel.seed`? or should we create a new `Random` module.
3. Would it make sense to provide a method that will just securly seed rand
like so
<< i1 :: unsigned-integer-32, i2 :: unsigned-integer-32, i3 ::
unsigned-integer-32>> = :crypto.strong_rand_bytes(12):rand.seed(:exsplus, {i1,
i2, i3})
4. Anything else I should consider if I submit a pull request other than
obvious testing and documentation
Thanks so much for your attention and feedback!
Dorian
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