Re: ideal interface for Random Number Generators?
On 2010-06-10 07:52:21 -1000, Keith H Duggar said:
On Jun 10, 1:22?pm, Pete Becker <p...@versatilecoding.com> wrote:
On 2010-06-09 19:52:14 -1000, orz said:
On Jun 9, 1:50?pm, Pete Becker <p...@versatilecoding.com> wrote:
The design of RNG serialization for TR1 includes use on non-homogeneous
systems. Binary representations just don't work for that.
If you're talking about endianness, I was presuming that endianness
would be taken care of in the serialization code. ?If you're talking
about floating point formats that's a bit harder but it could
certainly be taken care of more efficiently than conversion from and
to text. ?Why would binary RNG state serialization be harder?
Because text transfer already deals with all the issues that you're
going to have to ferret out and manage with your hypothetical binary
protocol.
So it seems more a choice to utilize an existing subsystem (ie
using the text serialization code rather than designing second
(binary) format serialization code) rather than a "binary just
doesn't work" situation?
After all, text is just binary with a certain format.
Shrug. Underneath it's all bits, too.
And text
is designed not only to be portable but notably to be readable
to humans. Surely if one removes the human readable constraint
one can design a more efficient format that is still portable
across modes, machines, etc.
Maybe, but why do you want to do this? Have you shown that text has
inherent inefficiencies that produce significant bottlenecks for your
application? For the design goals of TR1 and C++0x, text is sufficient
and simple.
--
Pete
Roundhouse Consulting, Ltd. (www.versatilecoding.com) Author of "The
Standard C++ Library Extensions: a Tutorial and Reference
(www.petebecker.com/tr1book)
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