[ 09 Nov 02 07:05, Jasen Betts wrote to Scott Little ]

 SL>> Or a library.
 JB> I had to write it to count the lines... I could turn it into a C
 JB> library fuunction, and do it in pascal too. I guess even basic too...
 JB> :)

I use a little SQL table.. there are MySQL modules for almost any popular
(and not so popular) OS and language.. except DOS but I don't give a fig
about DOS anymore :)

 JB> If you're seeing it once per pkt (or other gropuping of messages)
 JB> ithere's no guarantee that it won't give the same number it gave
 JB> yesterday or last week some time. or even last year..

Uh, what did I just say?  If the rand() is prefixed with year, month, day,
hour, minute, second, millisecon, the rand() would have to return the same
number twice in that one millisecond.

The only issue here is if rand() is seeded by the time, in which case
multiple processes will generate the same sequence of 'random' numbers
(again, this will have to happen during the same millisecond in both
processes). But on any non-shitty OS (ie. not DOS) there will be a system
wide source of randomness or other information that will keep two processes
from picking the same number.

 JB> the easiest way to ge unique numbers is to use each number once.
 JB> the easiest way to do that is just to use them in order.

Which means using a single source.

 JB> {at}MSGIDUNIQUE

Good idea, but rofl!

Fidonet.  The amateur Microsoft.

Are you sure this unique ID is really unique? [Y/n] _

 JB> or maybe it could go in the address part of the msgid, not sure how
 JB> really.

Was it decided that three fields in MSGID would break things?  If software
is currently only generating one field then I can't see it being any worse.


-- Scott Little  [fidonet#3:712/848 / sysgod{at}sysgod.org]

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