[jira] [Updated] (TEXT-36) RandomStringGenerator: allow users to provide source of randomness

["Pascal Schumacher (JIRA)" <ji...@apache.org>]

     [ https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/TEXT-36?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:all-tabpanel ]

Pascal Schumacher updated TEXT-36:
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    Summary: RandomStringGenerator: allow users to provide source of randomness  (was: RandomStringGenerator: allow users to provide source of randomess)

> RandomStringGenerator: allow users to provide source of randomness
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>                 Key: TEXT-36
>                 URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/TEXT-36
>             Project: Commons Text
>          Issue Type: Improvement
>            Reporter: Gilles
>              Labels: api
>             Fix For: 1.1
>
>
> This is a follow-up of a [discussion|https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/TEXT-34?focusedCommentId=15762623&page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel#comment-15762623] held in TEXT-34.
> IMHO, there is no harm in depending on the ["commons-rng-client-api" module|http://commons.apache.org/proper/commons-rng/commons-rng-client-api/javadocs/api-1.0/index.html] of Commons RNG; the "zero dependency" mantra does not hold here, since TEXT already depends on LANG.
> OTOH, I see that it is counter-productive (i.e. it harms the Commons project as a whole) to not advertize or use other Commons components, despite the "own dog food" phrase appearing recurrently on the "dev" ML.
> Rather than having people blindly use {{java.util.Random}}, we should allow them to choose wisely, based on full information.
> IMO, that means to indeed use {{UniformRandomProvider}} in order to raise awareness about alternatives to the sub-optimal algorithm used by the JDK.
> However, if some Commons developers do not trust that the {{UniformRandomProvider}} interface can be stable enough for TEXT, then we should follow Jochen Wiedemann's advice (cf. archive of the "dev" ML) and define TEXT's own interface to random numbers, with bridges to it from {{UniformRandomProvider}} and from {{java.util.Random}}.



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