On Thu, May 23, 2013 at 6:51 AM, Richard Gaskin <ambassa...@fourthworld.com> wrote: > Wouldn't that put the probability of sorting bottom-to-top unusually high, > since there the odds are 4294967292-to-1 that the sort integer will exceed > the number of lines in the list?
If I'm reading the prior posts right, that won't be a problem, because all of the lines will have such a number. Whereas for a small list, there could indeed be a problem: if numbers from 1 to three are being generated, there is only a 1/3 chance that all of the numbers from 1 to 3 are generated (1*2/3*1/3). There is also a 1/3 chance that the same number is generated three times (3*(1/3*1/3)). In such cases, the order of the affected lines (the ones with the multiply drawn number) would not change (e.g., if both have "2", they will both be left where they are). Put another way, 2/3 of the time, one or more lines will not be subject to sort. That said, sorting three lines by random(3) is not going to give random results. A number that is large compared to the lines sorted is needed -- Dr. Richard E. Hawkins, Esq. (702) 508-8462 _______________________________________________ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
