Saturday 8 September 2012

New Android App: Random Number Generator

Good Evening,

I've just published my second Android app: Random Number Generator.

It allows the user to generate a set of integers based on a bunch of user-defined settings. There a lot of these available in the Android app market! Probably because of the very same reason I decided to build one: it's straight forward. However, the app does add some value as it includes analysis functionality that can be applied to the returned set of randoms post generation.

Randoms are useful for building games and in testing the results of scientific experiments; they also have  applications in the fields of engineering, cryptology and even art and literature. Although, if you have the facilities to be indulging in these activities, you're probably more than capable of generating your own random numbers! That said, hopefully the app will be useful for users new to randoms.

As with the previous app, this was more about my learning Android Java (which I have).

Ideas for next version include: further analysis: I tried to get the interquartile range in this version but it kicked my ass; the ability to choose different distributions: Guassian, Poisson, binomial etc; inclusion of decimal randoms.

(Note to geeks: They're not strictly random numbers they're technically pseudo-random, but the distinction is extremely subtle)