I agree, Geoff! Your theory and measurements are consistent with mine for 3.
An important part of Geoff's test is this: > put originalList into newList Dar On May 23, 2013, at 1:30 PM, Geoff Canyon wrote: > There is, indeed much confusion here. I, of course, am correct ;-) > > I simplified the problem to a list of two items: > > 1,2 > > That way the sort command has exactly two outcomes. It either reverses the > list, or it doesn't. The two outcomes should happen roughly 50% of the > time. This script demonstrates that sorting by a large random number works, > and sorting by a random number up to the number of items (2) does not. > > on mouseUp > put "1,2" into originalList > repeat 10000 > put originalList into newList > sort items of newList by random(2) > if newList is originalList then add 1 to sameCount1 > end repeat > repeat 10000 > put originalList into newList > sort items of newList by random(999999999) > if newList is originalList then add 1 to sameCount2 > end repeat > put "Sorting by random(2) kept the same order" && sameCount1 && "out of > 10000 times." & cr & \ > "Sorting by random(999999999) kept the same order" && sameCount2 > && "out of 10000 times." > end mouseUp > > For anyone interested in the math, as you would expect, the random numbers > for the sort come out 2,1 roughly 1/4 of the time, so the result is that > the list is in the same order roughly 75% of the time when using random(2). > Here's one result I got: > > Sorting by random(2) kept the same order 7514 out of 10000 times. > Sorting by random(999999999) kept the same order 5014 out of 10000 times. > > If anyone disagrees, come at me, bro. ;-) > _______________________________________________ > 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 _______________________________________________ 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
