Use the randgen framework to set the seeds for controlled Magma, Singular, etc. sessions

[malb]

The interfaces to gp, gap, r, scilab, magma, etc., should use the randgen framework to initialize/set the seed for their respective random number generators.

The purpose of this ticket is to add a set_seed method to each interface which takes the appropriate input to modify the random number generator's seed value. It should also make the interfaces initialize their seed value with a random value generated from the randgen framework.

Component: interfaces

Author: Travis Scholl

Branch/Commit: 38256ae

Reviewer: Martin Albrecht

Issue created by migration from https://trac.sagemath.org/ticket/3231

[tscholl2]

Commit: 141e8e9

[tscholl2]

New commits:

e532a6c	added set_seed support for singular
aa2b61b	used randstate to initialize seed in some interfaces
141e8e9	Added set_seed functionality to more interfaces.

[tscholl2]

Author: Travis Scholl

[tscholl2]

Branch: u/tscholl2/seeds_3231

[sagetrac-git]

Changed commit from 141e8e9 to 33abf28

[sagetrac-git]

Branch pushed to git repo; I updated commit sha1. New commits:

33abf28

Added Magma example

[sagetrac-git]

Branch pushed to git repo; I updated commit sha1. New commits:

3f8533a

fixed randstate singular example

[sagetrac-git]

Changed commit from 33abf28 to 3f8533a

[tscholl2]

comment:10

I added a set_seed function on a lot of the interfaces such as gap, gp, magma, maxima, R, and singular. This allows setting the seed for the corresponding random number generator.

This made solving the ticket very easy by just calling "set_seed" when the interface is started with _start.

I think someone should rewrite the randstate class to use these methods if possible. However that would require someone with more cython knowledge.

Also set_seed still needs to be implemented on a few more interfaces, but those are not free so they are not as easy to test with.

[malb]

comment:11

Maybe this ticket should be repurposed then and another ticket created to realise the integration into the randgen() framework? It'd be a shame if this bitrots.

[tscholl2]

comment:12

I think this ticket is fine because it's still a step in the right direction. In my mind the best framework would be for every interface to have a set_seed function like these. Then randstate would have methods that take in an instance of an interface and set it's seed using that method. Right now there is no control over multiple instances of interfaces, which it seems like there could/should be, and it might even simplify some of the randstate code.

Also randstate would still set seeds for non-interfaces such as libraries like libc and python.random (or wrap the random calls as it does). All of the set_seed methods I wrote default to interface.rand_seed on startup which uses randstate, so I think this fit the description of this ticket.

I think the next ticket should be specifically about randstate and be dependent on this one. I am worried repurposing this ticket to do both might be a bit much. Or did you have something else in mind?

[malb]

comment:13

I agree: let's deal with what you've done in this ticket (and change the description accordingly) and then open another follow up ticket which deals with the randstate business.

[sagetrac-git]

Branch pushed to git repo; I updated commit sha1. New commits:

8601eb9

reverted changes in randstate

[sagetrac-git]

Changed commit from 3f8533a to 8601eb9

[tscholl2]

comment:27

I added a doc test for the set_seed method for the general interface. It was easy to add.

[malb]

comment:28

Looks good to me.

[vbraun]

comment:29

sage -t --long src/sage/interfaces/magma.py  # 2 doctests failed
sage -t --long src/sage/interfaces/octave.py  # 2 doctests failed
sage -t --long src/sage/interfaces/scilab.py  # 2 doctests failed
sage -t --long src/sage/repl/interpreter.py  # 1 doctest failed

[tscholl2]

comment:30

I get the first 3 errors if I run sage -t --long src/sage/interfaces/magma.py but not if I run ./sage -t --long src/sage/interfaces/magma.py. Shouldn't I only be checking if it runs with the version of Sage on the branch and not the user's systems' version?

The last error seems to be something I didn't notice. Apparently some of the interfaces keep a counter of the commands used and label things with it. The set_seed function for some interfaces raises this counter because it needs to call a command in the interface. So running the test in src/sage/repl/interpreter.py the counter is off from what it used to be.

This error doesn't occur if I comment out line 626 in src/sage/interfaces/maxima.py:

625 # set random seed
626 self.set_seed(self._seed)

I'm not sure what to do about this. It seems like there is a few options:

• We could reset the counter after the set_seed function is called (I actually don't know if this is possible yet).
• We could change all the doc tests in functions which use this counter and increment it manually.
• We could not run set_seed on start and leave it up to the user to run it.

Martin, do you have any suggestions on which way to proceed?

[malb]

comment:31

Ah, crap my comments from yesterday seem not to have arrived:

• You are not seeing these errors because you have octave et al. installed in your local development environment. In other words: some doctests are not marked optional but you should be marked optional.

• I'd just update the doctest, set_seed() is a proper call, so no point in resetting the counter.

[sagetrac-git]

Changed commit from 773a1f3 to df73e17

[sagetrac-git]

Branch pushed to git repo; I updated commit sha1. New commits:

df73e17

added # optional to set_seed doc tests

[tscholl2]

comment:33

I added # optional - tags to the corresponding doc tests. I think I got all of them, but someone should check. Strangely enough, this also fixed the other test sage -t --long src/sage/repl/interpreter.py. Which may mean that either it wasn't actually counting the calls to the interpreter, or something else happened with the optional flags which affected it.

[malb]

comment:34

I still get

sage -t --warn-long 33.6 src/sage/repl/interpreter.py  # 1 doctest failed
**********************************************************************
File "src/sage/repl/interpreter.py", line 561, in sage.repl.interpreter.InterfaceShellTransformer.preparse_imports_from_sage
Failed example:
    ift.preparse_imports_from_sage('2 + maxima(a)')
Expected:
    '2 +  sage1 '
Got:
    '2 +  sage4 '

but the other three are gone.

[sagetrac-git]

Changed commit from df73e17 to 38256ae

[sagetrac-git]

Branch pushed to git repo; I updated commit sha1. New commits:

38256ae

changed doc test because set_seed call

[tscholl2]

comment:36

I removed some white space and changed a doctest in src/sage/repl/interpreter.py.

The doc test was failing because maxima now calls set_seed on startup which uses several calls to the maxima interpreter. Therefore instead of getting back 2 + sage1, it should get back 2 + sage4.

[malb]

comment:37

tests pass here & looks good.

[vbraun]

Changed branch from u/tscholl2/seeds_3231 to 38256ae