Re: [xml] EXSLT random() function

[Ralf Junker <ralfjunker gmx de>]

>> so apparently libexslt implementation might just be conformant, but
>> as usual we takes patches ... But I don't see how you would seed in
>> a truely random fashion while keeping the code portable.
>
>  replying to myself, maybe we could just use 
>    srand((unsigned int)time(NULL))
>just before xsltRegisterExtModuleFunction ((const xmlChar *) "random", ...
>in exsltMathRegister()

Well possible, but calling srand() automatically can be disturbing - and hard to debug, if not known! - if a special srand() was issued previously to run reproducable tests.

Also, as far as I understand, calling srand() automatically is only required for external libxml libraries. If linked into applications, they can just call srand() as they please.

How about, therefore, adding a simple srand() wrapper function like (for example xmlsrand() or similar) which applications can call to set the external library's random seed?

Ralf