hap.random: a new random number library for D

[Joseph Rushton Wakeling via Digitalmars-d-announce]

On Tuesday, 10 June 2014 at 06:53:46 UTC, Chris Cain wrote:
> Awesome! I'll definitely check this out :)

Thanks, that would be great!

> Would there be any chance of additional contributions, such as 
> an ISAAC RNG implementation, being accepted? I wouldn't go as 
> far as to guarantee it for crypto purposes, but I've been 
> messing around with an implementation recently and wouldn't 
> mind porting it over to D (it's based on the public domain 
> implementation found on this website: 
> http://burtleburtle.net/bob/rand/isaacafa.html )

Yea, it'd be great to have submissions like this.  I plan on
having a hap.random.crypto as another experimental module (i.e.
not included if you do "import hap.random", copiously labelled as
experimental until it's had a security review, etc.) so
guaranteeing crypto possibilities straight away is not a problem.
   Part of the point of hap is that it gives us a place where we
can get things wrong and correct them. ;-)

I think I'll create a 1.x.x branch for the current release
process and add a crypto module shortly in the ~master branch,
I'll ping you when that's done.

> So far the numbers it puts out appear to be pretty good from my 
> observations, PLUS it's really fast for a large number of 
> outputs (it costs a lot up-front, however).
>
> I also have a variation of "ISAAC+" as described by the paper 
> here: http://eprint.iacr.org/2006/438.pdf
>
> The problem I have with "ISAAC+", though, is that the paper 
> incorrectly describes the original ISAAC algorithm (Algorithm 
> 1.1 fails to `xor a` at line 6) so it's unclear whether the 
> paper actually solves a problem. Furthermore, I'd really prefer 
> to keep that xor regardless (because it may have simply been an 
> oversight but intended) so it's hard (I don't want to) to 
> really call it "ISAAC+" since it is notably different than the 
> paper's description.
>
> That said, it's a paper that comes up often enough in 
> discussions about ISAAC that people suggest a desire for it.

Why not write to the paper's author and ask about it?  It may
seem like a small thing, but they'll probably be grateful for the
interest and feedback.