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

Jason A. Donenfeld
2022-11-17T16:21:21Z

On Thu, Nov 17, 2022 at 10:42:37AM -0500, Theodore Ts'o wrote:
> 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().

Alright, that about settles it then. I'll re-roll.

Jason