[Tutor] Sum of Scores

[Tiger12506]

> So normally, after the period is up, it would choose a new seed? or does 
> it repeat after the period whether or not the time has changed?

It would repeat whether or not the time has changed, naturally. How would 
the algorithm know when the period has finished? The mersenne twister is 
based on  functions that repeat naturally, and the way they are combined 
helps extend the period of the combined function. I seriously doubt that a 
new seed is chosen. Who bothers checking for repetition that is expected to 
occur a gazillion trillion billion and more years in the future?

But because you can predict when it can repeat, you can predict what the 
outcome will be. That's why it's not used in cryptography for example.

I thought I might look up just what occurs in the Mersenne twister. I have C 
code that performs this ~ yuck. Lots of bit shifts, ANDs, ORs, etc. I'll 
work through just what happens, but I know the theory. It's pattern repeats 
unhindered when it's period starts over.


>>  > as a side note - are you going to enter the September Pyweek?  You 
>> should!
>>
>>> It's a lot of fun.
>>> -Luke
>>>
>>
>> Hmmm.... what's that? I'll google.
>>
> It's a whole lot of fun.  And everyone's really nice.
> SO even if you don't have time to finish a game, it's enjoyable and a 
> learning experience just to
> hang out with everyone on IRC.  Also, you should have time to learn pygame 
> for the competition if you don't know how to use it already.  Of course 
> you could use pyglet or pyOpenGL or something instead, if you wanted.

Oh man. As much as I would love to do something like that, I'm sure I would 
be highly Out of Place.  I don't have the patience, nor the speed. I work 
slowly. I do a project slowly once a week making a huge design break-through 
so that it culminates into a working project.

JS