dragon@hubcap.clemson.edu (Michael E. Quattlebaum) (12/14/89)
I need an XFCN that will go out and randomly select a word from a field. This will be used in an educational stack that selects words for a student to practice a spelling excercise. I will be willing to write this if need be, but why reinvent the wheel, huh? Please send e-mail with ftp sites, etc. if such a beast exists. Thanks.
marvel@giza.cis.ohio-state.edu (Howard P Marvel) (12/14/89)
In article <7417@hubcap.clemson.edu> dragon@hubcap.clemson.edu (Michael E. Quattlebaum) writes: >I need an XFCN that will go out and randomly select a word from a >field. This will be used in an educational stack that selects >words for a student to practice a spelling excercise. I will be >willing to write this if need be, but why reinvent the wheel, huh? >Please send e-mail with ftp sites, etc. if such a beast exists. Why do you need an XFCN? put the number of words in field spell into foo put word random(foo) of field spell into spellword I haven't tried this, but it looks ok.
martin@m2.csc.ti.com (Steven Martin) (12/14/89)
In article <74944@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Howard P Marvel <marvel@cis.ohio-state.edu> writes: >In article <7417@hubcap.clemson.edu> dragon@hubcap.clemson.edu (Michael E. Quattlebaum) writes: >>I need an XFCN that will go out and randomly select a word from a >>field. This will be used in an educational stack that selects >>words for a student to practice a spelling excercise. I will be >>willing to write this if need be, but why reinvent the wheel, huh? >>Please send e-mail with ftp sites, etc. if such a beast exists. > >Why do you need an XFCN? > > put the number of words in field spell into foo > put word random(foo) of field spell into spellword > >I haven't tried this, but it looks ok. Yecchh! :-) How about: any word of field spell It's amazing how many little commands like this there are and how few people actually know about them. Steve Martin USENET: {ctvax,im4u,texsun,rice}!ti-csl!martin ARPANET: SMARTIN@CSC.TI.COM COMPUSERVE: 72727,1471 GENIE: S.MARTIN8 PHONE: (214)-995-0387, 404-1061 I'll have four whole fried chickens and a Coke. -Jake Blues
jdevoto@Apple.COM (Jeanne A. E. DeVoto) (12/15/89)
In article <7417@hubcap.clemson.edu> dragon@hubcap.clemson.edu (Michael E. Quattlebaum) writes: >I need an XFCN that will go out and randomly select a word from a >field. This will be used in an educational stack that selects >words for a student to practice a spelling excercise. I will be >willing to write this if need be, but why reinvent the wheel, huh? No need for an XFCN. This can be done with the following line: get any word of field "foobar" -- ====== jeanne a. e. devoto ======================================== jdevoto@apple.com | You may not distribute this article under a jdevoto@well.UUCP | compilation copyright without my permission. ___________________________________________________________________ Apple Computer and I are not authorized | CI$: 72411,165 to speak for each other. | AppleLink: SQA.TEST
llkl@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Laurie Kleiner) (12/15/89)
In article <74944@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Howard P Marvel <marvel@cis.ohio-state.edu> writes: >In article <7417@hubcap.clemson.edu> dragon@hubcap.clemson.edu (Michael E. Quattlebaum) writes: >>I need an XFCN that will go out and randomly select a word from a >>field. This will be used in an educational stack that selects >>words for a student to practice a spelling excercise. I will be >>willing to write this if need be, but why reinvent the wheel, huh? >>Please send e-mail with ftp sites, etc. if such a beast exists. > >Why do you need an XFCN? > > put the number of words in field spell into foo > put word random(foo) of field spell into spellword > If you don't want the words to be repeated within a test, then it's better to get the total number of words in the field, pick a random number, get the coresponding word, delete the nth word in the field. ie: put the number of words in field spell into foo put the random of number into bar put word bar of field spell into spellword delete word bar of field spell Getting the random number can be slow, and random doesn't work with values over 32767. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Laurie Kleiner LLKL_SS@DB1.CC.ROCHESTER.EDU Old enough to know better, stupid enough to do it anyhow. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
rieman@boulder.Colorado.EDU (John Rieman) (12/16/89)
>[... example of using random() ...] > >Yecchh! :-) How about: > >any word of field spell > >It's amazing how many little commands like this there are and how few >people actually know about them. > >Steve Martin Hardly amazing, since Apple doesn't bother to distribute a complete reference to Hypertalk with HyperCard. Anyway, I like the "random()" solution as well or better. It's clear what it does, and it admits to easy modification (e.g., deleting the word after selecting it, as suggested in another posting). But mostly that reflects my preference for a minimal set of commands and functions. I can see how someone else might prefer "any" in this case. Does anyone know how random "random()" really is? -john rieman@boulder.colorado.edu U. of Colo.