[slime-devel] random returning the same value

[Patrick May]

On Nov 30, 2009, at 2:26 PM, Stas Boukarev wrote:
> Patrick May <patrick.may at mac.com> writes:
> 
>> On Dec 6, 2008, at 3:12 AM, Tobias C. Rittweiler wrote:
>>> Patrick May <pjm at spe.com> writes:
>>> 
>>>> Hi,
>>>> 
>>>> 	I'm using Slime in Aquamacs with CCL.  When I evaluate (random
>>>> 100) repeatedly in CCL started from a shell, I get a randomly
>>>> generated  number between 0 and 99 inclusive.  When I do the same with
>>>> C-x C-e  within Slime, I get the same number every time.  (random 100
>>>> (make- 
>>>> random-state)) gives the same behavior, but (random 100 (make-random-
>>>> state t)) works properly.
>>>> 
>>>> 	Is Slime caching something or have I hosed up my environment?
>>> 
>>> Sorry for the late response.  CCL's swank backend uses threads by
>>> default, and threads inherit values from the global
>>> environment. *RANDOM-STATE* probably becomes thread-local automatically
>>> in CCL, resulting in the behaviour you described.
>>> 
>>> It should work when you type in the form at the Slime REPL which
>>> evaluates all forms in the same thread.
>> 
>> 	Almost exactly a year later, I get bit by a similar issue (although it did trigger my memory of this discussion).  Basically, the same thing happens with gensym as with random -- in Slime it returns a symbol with the same name every time.  Is this a ccl issue or a slime issue?  Has anyone got a workaround so that I can run unit tests within slime?
> (funcall (cdr (assoc '*gensym-counter* (ccl::standard-initial-bindings))))
> => 0
> 
> But why do you care?

	What I'm trying to do is test incrementally within Slime, but the fact that these kinds of things behave differently than they do from the repl or from a loaded image makes that impossible.

	That's not to say that I'm not abusing gensym a little bit in this particular instance.  ;-)

Thanks,

Patrick

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