[metapost] Re: a "randomseed" workaround

[Larry Siebenmann]

Hi Carl,

 > Another item for Taco, I guess -- seems like that should be easily
 > changeable.  All current os's supply time in seconds at least, not to
 > mention milliseconds or microseconds.

Yes,  all current os's.

 > scantokens does not appear in the reference part of the manual at all
 > (the tables at the end).

It should appear in the tables (see my tentative proposal,
backchanneled). If I had not known the magic of
"scantokens" from etex, I would have had to enquire about
(string --> numeric) conversion from listmembers --- as I
*am* enquiring about flexible  file naming for "shipout".
It seems "scantokens" originated in mf!  Is this explicit
'ruminant' concept or term in other interpreted languages?

Cheers,

Laurent S.