Why should there be an RNG in the standard library...

# announcements

[Ruckus]

Why should there be an RNG in the standard library? All the platforms Kotlin targets have libraries for that, so you could use those, or we could have a pure Kotlin version in its own library. This is getting #C09222272

[mg6maciej]

ruckustboom: I'm not saying it should have complete implementation. For JVM kotlin.Random would be a typealias to java.util.Random.

[mg6maciej]

https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/KT-17261

[kevinmost]

right, this is how List is handled, for example

[kevinmost]

kotlin.List typealiases to java.util.List

[Ruckus]

That could work, but I'm still of the opinion RNGs aren't a standard library feature. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I prefer smaller standard libraries and having extra functionality be in separate libraries.

[mg6maciej]

And even kotlin.ArrayList.

[mg6maciej]

I see no problems in splitting it.

[Ruckus]

What do you mean by splitting it? I like the idea of typealiasing to existing libraries on a given platform, but I don't think it should be kotlin.Random. Maybe something like kotlinx.Random or even a separate kotlinx.random library that can forward to Random, SecureRandom, etc.

[mg6maciej]

Splitting standard library.

[kevinmost]

I would be fine with a kotlinx with all of this stuff