Re: [PATCH v2 3/3] treewide: use get_random_u32_between() when possible

Theodore Ts'o
2022-11-17T15:45:00Z

On Wed, Nov 16, 2022 at 04:47:27PM -0800, Kees Cook wrote:
> >> > - between
> >> > - ranged
> >> > - spanning
> >> >
> >> > https://www.thefreedictionary.com/List-of-prepositions.htm
> >> > - amid
> >> >
> >> > Sigh, names.
> >>
> >> I think "inclusive" is best.
> >
> >I find it not very descriptive of what the function does. Is there one
> >you like second best? Or are you convinced they're all much much much
> >worse than "inclusive" that they shouldn't be considered?
>
> Right, I don't think any are sufficiently descriptive. "Incluisve"
> with two arguments seems unambiguous and complete to me. :)

The problem with "between", "ranged", "spanning" is that they don't
tell the reader whether we're dealing with an "open interval" or a
"closed interval". They are just different ways of saying that it's a
range between, say, 0 and 20. But it doesn't tell you whether it
includes 0 or 20 or not.

The only way I can see for making it ambiguous is either to use the
terminology "closed interval" or "inclusive". And "open" and "closed"
can have other meanings, so get_random_u32_inclusive() is going to be
less confusing than get_random_u32_closed().

Cheers,

- Ted