Rename random to randomInt

[aleclarson]

For clarity's sake and also because we'll want to add randomFloat.

export function randomFloat(min = 0, max = 1): number {
  return min + (max - min) * Math.random()
}

export function randomInt(min: number, max: number): number {
  return randomFloat(min, max + 1) | 0
}

Let me take this moment to also suggest adding randomSecureInt and randomSecureFloat functions too, based on the WebCrypto crypto.getRandomValues API (available in the global namespace of modern browsers and Node.js v15+).

declare const crypto: {
  getRandomValues: (array: Uint32Array) => Uint32Array
}

export function randomSecureFloat(min = 0, max = 1): number {
  const int = crypto.getRandomValues(new Uint32Array(1))[0]
  return min + (max - min) * (int / 2 ** 32)
}

export function randomSecureInt(min: number, max: number): number {
  return randomSecureFloat(min, max + 1) | 0
}

[aleclarson]

Worth asking if randomDouble makes more sense, or if it's not a big deal to use float instead. Thoughts?

[Minhir]

I'm not sure about the use-cases for randomSecureX. In most (all?) scenarios, you want to use it for cryptography and related things. And in such case it's usually not about only one random number but about the big arrays which is more performant to create with native API. Also, I'm not sure that this is a good idea to trust some secure randomness for 3d-party utility library.

In the end, randomSecureX can be confusing for inexperienced users and useless for experienced ones.

[aleclarson]

That's a smart assessment. The math-random package has 1.6M weekly downloads, so it seems there is a need to be served. Though the question is how to do it in a way that's not confusing.

Even if we punt on randomSecureX for now, I still plan on renaming random and introducing randomFloat. I also want to switch to a less biased implementation as described in this article.

[aleclarson]

Related issue: sodiray/radash#32