Short: Run another program with Truely random parameters Author: Mark Tierno Uploader: drstrange jps net Type: util/misc Architecture: m68k-amigaos Ever run one of those "Random" WB backdrop programs, with about a thousand pics on your harddrive for it to choose from only to discover that the "random" routine used in the program only seems to choose the same 20 out of all those 1000 pictures? I have. Being tired of random routines in programs that aren't really random, and having a good one up my sleeve, I broke out the old compiler and did something about it. Enter Randyprog. It will run the specified program with a random parameter as picked from the specified list. USAGE from shell: Randyprog Where: ProgramName = the complete path and name of the program to run; no need to put in the "RUN <>NIL:", I do all that for you. Also include here any NON-random parameters you want the program to use. If there will be any spaces in this part then enclose the whole thing in double quotes. Random Parameter List: This is the complete path and name to a file that contains a list of random parameters, one per line. For Instance: If you're using Randyprog to run a WB backdrop program, then each line in this file would contais the complete path to a differnt picture someplace on your hard drive. Don't use any wild cards here or they will be passed to the original program and allow it to use it's own internal random routines for that part, defeating the whole purpose of using this program. That's it; nothing too difficult. EXAMPLE I use this for a random WB backdrop program called RndBG. In S: I keep a file called "wbbackpics" which is a list of every picture on my harddrive, each line a complete path (just use "list" with an LFORMAT parameter to generate it in a jiffy). My command line (slaved to a hot-key for immediate use) is Randyprog "C:RndBG WBPIC" S:wbbackpics Of course you can use this for any program that you want to give a random parameter to (bootpics, backdrops, whatever). FUTURE Like there's more I can do with this thing? HISTORY v1.0 Initial release v2.0 played around with the random routines a bit to make things more random for when dealing with a large paremeter list file (hundreds to thousands of lines or more); it had seemed to be falling into select patterns of numbers (or my computer just really likes those same pics).