Improving Randomness & Wildcard File Reading in `WAS_Node_Suite.py`

[toxicwind]

• Added the secrets module for superior randomness.

  • The secrets module provides a stronger level of randomness, making our selections less predictable and more varied.

• Modified file reading to handle encoding errors gracefully.

  • By adding the errors="ignore" parameter, we can prevent crashes due to unexpected encoding issues.

• Switched from random.choice() to secrets.choice() for selecting lines.

  • Leveraging secrets.choice() ensures a higher degree of randomness when picking lines, enhancing the unpredictability of our selections.

[WASasquatch]

Oh nice. I'll check this out when I am back home. Sounds nice.

[toxicwind]

Just for reference, the current randomness is fine for small wildcard files, the secrets library randomness only matters when you have a wildcards file that has a massive amount of lines, I noticed that the numpy random was causing a "noticeable" random.

[WASasquatch]

Just for reference, the current randomness is fine for small wildcard files, the secrets library randomness only matters when you have a wildcards file that has a massive amount of lines, I noticed that the numpy random was causing a "noticeable" random.

I noticed the same thing, like my popular location lists and natl parks, just repeating same "set" of places/parks.

[toxicwind]

Well it turns out that even the secrets module isnt random enough, the code changes above use SystemRandom which is supposedly cryptographically reliably random...

[WASasquatch]

Doesn't appear to be seeded which is a deal breaker. Need to be deterministic.

[WASasquatch]

I think the best way to improve randomness within X calls is probably simply a history utilizing the nodes persistent class to store X previous results, and ensuring a new result isn't within it (assuming total wildcards is above X history), then clear out oldest results from history as it's max size is exceeded.