Should raylib provide a way to retrieve system entropy for seeding the random number generator?

[OetkenPurveyorOfCode]

I was thinking of an API like:

unsigned int GetEntropy(void)

So people could use it like so:

SetRandomSeed(GetEntropy());
int random_value = GetRandomValue(0, 100);

[orcmid]

That's an interesting idea. I'm uncertain whether "entropy" is the correct term.

The implementation is going to have to be platform-specific though. Do you have thoughts about that?

[raysan5]

@OetkenPurveyorOfCode I think at that level of requirement, a user should just use their own random mechanism. raylib tries to be simple, it's already exposing more than most users require.

[OetkenPurveyorOfCode]

I would be fine if random number generation was moved into a separate header, even a separate library, where it could potentially be more fully featured. But I guess for backward compatibility it should remain as is.

I think your reply is very reasonable. It is just the case that I would probably do things improperly for quick and dirty random stuff (like take advantage of ASLR by casting a pointer to an int, or do boring stuff like seeding with (unsigned int)(1000000*GetFrameTime()) rather than bothering much with system APIs like RtlGenRandom().

Anyway it was just an idea.

Thank you for your reply.
I think the discussion can end here with the conclusion that nothing needs to be done.

[raysan5]

The random numbers generation is already in a separate single-file header-only library and not dependant on libc rand(): https://github.com/raysan5/raylib/blob/master/src/external/rprand.h