Saturday, July 21, 2012

New Generator Testing Features!

If you develop random generators at dxContent.com, you'll be happy to learn about the latest enhancement to the generator builder tools.

I've added in a "Rolls" field that captures all of the random values generated as a running generator works its way through its scripts, so that a second run can retrace the same logic steps.

FYI - The two functions {Dice~} and {ChooseRandom~} are the two most powerful features that introduce randomness into your generators. 

Once the "Rolls" are captured, you can make use of the new "Use Previous Rolls" check box.  Assuming you've not changed your script, the next run will yield the exact same result as before.  This is handy when you want to force your generator down a certain path for testing or problem solving.

For the power-user, the "Rolls" field is editable.  This gives you even more power to test your generators.  Of course it also gives you the ability to cause the generator to act unpredictably if used incorrectly.  Fore example, whenever you alter a roll by hand, you are potentially altering the path your generator takes though the scripts (or introducing a value that isn't handled).  That new path may need more rolls, fewer rolls or even different ranges of values that what the previous run needed. So whenever you edit its good practice to clear the saved rolls following your edit. Its helpful to know that new random values are generated whenever the previous list of rolls runs out.