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Subject: RE: fixed range for random variables
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Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 15:29:24 -0700
Message-ID: <161E04AB9955D54E826FD8636057855401CC626E@cnet54.cnet.cnwk>
Thread-Topic: fixed range for random variables
Thread-Index: AcQ4JmXJJgaer6eISmOtKK8QO/JUtQASfeXQ
From: "Guy Ferraiolo" <guy.ferraiolo@cnet.com>
To: <test-dev@httpd.apache.org>

A friend has suggested that you might want to consider

allowing ${name=3Drand(41)} as a construct similar to :41?

Guy

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jacek Prucia [mailto:jacek.prucia@acn.waw.pl]
> Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 9:37 AM
> To: test-dev@httpd.apache.org
> Subject: fixed range for random variables
>=20
>=20
>=20
> Really nifty flood feature is the ability to initialize variable to
> random value. Using following construct: ${=3Dname} inside
> requesttemplate causes flood to create variable 'name', and assign it
> a value obtained by calling rand/lrand48/random. Consider a typical
> scenario, where you would like to fetch some item (say article) from
> database using random index. Here's an example:
>=20
> responsetemplate=3D"http://www.example.com/getArticle?id=3D{=3Dart_id}
>=20
> The problem is that range for random values is 0 - RAND_MAX
> (which is 2147483647 on my system). Not every database out=20
> there can be
> proud to have (calls random...) 27667 articles handy. So we need fixed
> range for random variables, which is what I have already written. The
> problem is how we integrate this into flood.
>=20
> Right now the range can be specified as:
>=20
>    5:24
>  -12:79
>     :41   (means 0:41)
>  123:     (means 123:RAND_MAX)
>=20
> Natural choice would be to use following construct for assigning fixed
> range:
>=20
> ${5:24=3Dname}
>=20
> This just extends existing concept, but also look's kinda odd. I would
> like to replace it with more general syntax:
>=20
> ${name=3Drand(5:24)}
>=20
> Is it okay with everybody? Please speak up if that violates anything.
>=20
> regards
> --
> Jacek Prucia
>=20