On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 9:23 AM, Sean Owen <sro...@gmail.com> wrote: > You're suggesting the class choose between a regular and test-friendly > RNG, by calling one of two methods. Doesn't that put the decision with > the class instead of externally? Right now it's already external. > RandomUtils decides what to instantiate.
I'm suggesting that the instantiator/caller of the class choose between a regular and test-friendly RNG. In some classes that creator will be a unit test in other cases the creator will be another piece of production code. In some cases the decision as to which type of RNG to use will need to be made further up the object graph than the immediate instantiator/caller, and generally it should be made as close to main() or setUp() as possible. RandomUtils essentially achieves the same thing in a static fashion. The class itself decides that it will always delegate to RandomUtils and random utils provides the different strategies. Currently if RandomUtils.useTestSeed() is called once in a VM all other callers of RandomUtils.getRandom() will get a test seed. Drew
