[LON-CAPA-users] LON-CAPA changing numbers?

[Mark Lucas]

Ray,

	Any library or access server can serve up materials for any 
course. I could send my students off to a msu access server if mine get 
too busy 8) They would still login with ohiou domain - this would tell 
msua1 where to find their home information.

	The materials would be forwarded from whereever in raw form, then 
msua1 would parse the materials - figure out what the random numbers were.

	If msua1 is running the older version of perl and I'm running the 
newer on local access servers, a student would find different results
depending on whether they logged into oucapa7 or msua1. None of this 
depends on which domain they are in - only which machine they are logged 
into, since these resources are parsed on that machine.

						Mark


On Thu, 10 Oct 2002, Raymond Batchelor wrote:

> Hi Gerd,
>   Hmmmm... but I still don't understand is how this happens.  I was 
>  assuming that he would have been using the sfu server....since his 
> username and role are in that domain.  I'm not sure how else the msu 
> server gets involved, unless there is a parallel account.  Clearly there 
> is some fundamental aspect here that may revolutionize the way I think 
> of and use this system... once I understand it.  
> 
> - Ray
> 
> > 
> > Ray,
> > 
> > No, the randomization is will not look at "parallel" usernames in other
> > domains. My initial guess is that the SFU and the MSU servers run
> > different versions of Perl, and thus different random number generators -
> > we were taken by surprise that the Perl routine was changed right under
> > us. The problem has been fixed in the developer release by using our own
> > hard-coded random number generator.
> > 
> > - Gerd.
> > 
> > Ray Batchelor wrote:
> > 
> > > I have just noticed something that might be related to this.
> > > A user who is presently at msu, but currently has a student role in my
> > > course in the domain sfu (boegel1@sfu), appears to be observing
> > > different permutations of problems than I observe for him here at sfu.
> > >
> > > Is this, perhaps, because he has a parallel username in the domain msu
> > > which permits him somewhow to access his role in the domain sfu but
> > > with a different seed?
> > >
> > > Very strange.
> > >
> > > Cheers,
> > > Ray
> > >
> > > On October 8, 2002 08:23 am, Guy Albertelli II wrote:
> > > > Hi Mark,
> > > >
> > > > > I'm trying to figure out the specific problem, as it may have been
> > > > > republished at some point, but I'm also looking for the information
> > > > > on the random seed creation. This will clue me in as to what has
> > > > > changed.
> > > >
> > > > symb (which means mapfilename + resourcefilename + id number of the
> > > >       resource on the map)
> > > >
> > > > Courseid
> > > >
> > > > Username
> > > >
> > > > user's domain name
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > (and as gerd said perl 5.005 versus perl 5.6.1)
> > > >
> > > > And of course varying the number and order of the random calls can
> > > > affect things.
> > > >
> > > > (I am uncertain about 5.6.0 and the variou 5.005_00? versions
> > > > specifically, but I would guess the breakage occurred in the 5.005 ->
> > > > 5.6 change)
> > > >
> > > > > What you're suggesting is that a different machine is giving a
> > > > > different random number in certain cases. I remember this being an
> > > > > issue with your installation up North of the old capa. Is there any
> > > > > chance of this here?
> > > >
> > > > I have yet to see this if they are running the smae version of Perl.
> > > >
> > > > > (for example, if I have access servers that are three different RH
> > > > > installations, might there be three different random numbers in
> > > > > limited situations?
> > > >
> > > > Unfortunatley yes.
> > > >
> > > > > I seem to remember seeing a random number check-in - did this fix
> > > > > this?)
> > > >
> > > > Yes.
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > LON-CAPA-users mailing list
> > > LON-CAPA-users@mail.lon-capa.org
> > > http://mail.lon-capa.org/mailman/listinfo/lon-capa-users
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
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> > 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Raymond J. Batchelor                               batchelo@sfu.ca
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> 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark Lucas					email: lucasm@ohiou.edu
252D Clippinger Lab  				phone: (740)597-2984
Department of Physics and Astronomy             fax:   (740)593-0433
Ohio University
Athens, OH 45701