Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!ncar!boulder!rieman
From: rieman@boulder.Colorado.EDU (John Rieman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Re: XFCN--randomly selecting a word from a field
Keywords: XFCN
Message-ID: <14925@boulder.Colorado.EDU>
Date: 15 Dec 89 18:03:13 GMT
References: <7417@hubcap.clemson.edu> <74944@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> <102249@ti-csl.csc.ti.com>
Sender: news@boulder.Colorado.EDU
Reply-To: rieman@boulder.Colorado.EDU (John Rieman)
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Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Lines: 26

>[... example of using random() ...]
>
>Yecchh! :-)  How about:
>
>any word of field spell
>
>It's amazing how many little commands like this there are and how few
>people actually know about them.
>
>Steve Martin            

Hardly amazing, since Apple doesn't bother to distribute a complete
reference to Hypertalk with HyperCard.  Anyway, I like the "random()"
solution as well or better.  It's clear what it does, and it admits to
easy modification (e.g., deleting the word after selecting it, as
suggested in another posting).  But mostly that reflects my preference
for a minimal set of commands and functions.  I can see how someone else
might prefer "any" in this case.

Does anyone know how random "random()" really is?  

-john

rieman@boulder.colorado.edu
U. of Colo.