Spinner

Overview

Generating Numbers

Range Selection

Clearing the Numbers

Copying Numbers to the Clipboard

Copying Numbers to a File

Marking Numbers to be Copied


Generating Numbers

To "spin the wheel" and generate a number, press the Spin button. Every press generates a number. The elapsed time between presses determines which numbers are generated. Since the user's reaction time is variable, the numbers will be fairly random and unrepeatable.

CAUTION: Once the input focus is on the Spin button, you can generate numbers quickly by holding the Enter key down. However, this is not recommended because the interval between keystrokes will be too regular to guarantee a reasonable amount of randomness.


Copying Numbers to the Clipboard

To copy numbers to the Clipboard,

(1) Mark the numbers to be copied. See Marking Numbers to be Copied.

(2) Press the Clipboard button, or hold either Ctrl key down and strike the C key.

If no numbers are marked when the Clipboard button is pressed, all numbers are copied to the Clipboard.


Copying Numbers to a File

To copy numbers to a file,

(1) Mark the numbers to be copied, or remove the marking if all numbers are to be copied. See Marking Numbers to be Copied.

(2) Press the File button. A standard file dialog box will appear.

(3) Select the desired file, or select the desired directory and enter a new file name.

(4) Press the OK button (or strike the Enter key) to continue. Press the Cancel button (or strike the Esc key) to cancel the operation.

(5) If the file already exists, a small dialog box will appear. In this case:

(a) Press the Overwrite button (or strike the Enter key) if you want to erase the current file contents before copying the numbers to it.

(b) Press the Append button if you want keep the current file contents and append the numbers to the end.

(c) Press the Cancel button (or strike the Esc key) to cancel the operation.


Marking Numbers to be Copied

To mark numbers to be copied to the Clipboard or a file with the mouse:

(1) Move the mouse cursor to the left end of the first number to be copied.

(2) Depress the left mouse button.

(3) Hold the button down and move the mouse cursor to the right end of the last number to be copied. The numbers will be highlighted as the mouse cursor moves.

(4) Release the mouse button.

(5) To remove the marking, move the mouse cursor over any part of the text box and tap the left mouse button. (Do this if you want to copy all of the numbers.)

To mark numbers to be copied to the Clipboard or a file with the keyboard:

(1) Strike the Tab key until the input focus reaches the text box containing the numbers. The text cursor will appear in the text box.

(2) Use the arrow keys to move the text cursor to the left end of the first number to be copied.

(3) Hold either Shift key down and move the text cursor to the right end of the last number to be copied. The numbers will be highlighted as the text cursor moves.

(4) Release the Shift key.

(5) To remove the marking, move the text cursor without holding either Shift key down. (Do this if you want to copy all of the numbers.)


Clearing the Numbers

To clear the numbers, press the Clear button.

You must do this before you can change the range. See Range Selection.


Range Selection

When the Spinner is first invoked, it is configured to generate random numbers in the range from 0 to 255, inclusive. The range is shown on the top line of the main window.

You can change the range as follows:

(1) If any numbers are showing, you must clear them by pressing the Clear button before you change the range.

(2) Press the Range button to bring up the Spinner Range Selection dialog box.

(3) The range is shown in numerical form in a small box. Below the box are two scroll bars that you can use to change the upper and lower limits of the range.

(4) To change the LOWER LIMIT of the range, move the runner in the LEFT SCROLL BAR. Move it to the left to lower the limit, or to the right to raise the limit. The range shown in the small box will be updated automatically.

(5) To change the UPPER LIMIT of the range, move the runner in the RIGHT SCROLL BAR. Move it to the left to lower the limit, or to the right to raise the limit. The range shown in the small box will be updated automatically.

(6) When you are satisfied with the new range, press the OK button (or strike the Enter key).

(7) If you decide not to change the range, press the Cancel button (or strike the Esc key).

The limits must be no less than zero and no greater than 999.

The lower limit must be less than the upper limit. When you change one limit, the other limit will also be changed, if necessary, to preserve this relationship.


Moving a Scroll Bar Runner

To move a scroll bar runner with the mouse:

(1) Move the mouse cursor to a box at the end of the scroll bar and

(a) tap the left mouse button to move the runner one step (in the direction of that end) for each tap, or

(b) hold the left mouse button down until the runner reaches the desired position.

(2) Move the mouse cursor to the runner and depress the left mouse button. Then hold the button down and move the mouse cursor to the desired position. The runner will follow it. When the runner reaches the desired position, release the button.

To move a scroll bar runner with the keyboard:

(1) Strike the Tab key until the input focus reaches the scroll bar runner and makes it flash.

(2) Strike the left arrow key to move the runner left one step.

(3) Strike the right arrow key to move the runner right one step.

(4) Strike the PgDn key to move the runner left 50 steps.

(5) Strike the PgUp key to move the runner right 50 steps.

(6) Strike the Home key to move the runner to the left end of the scroll bar.

(7) Strike the End key to move the runner to the right end of the scroll bar.


Mouse Cursor

An arrow or other small figure that moves with the mouse, trackball or other pointing device. It is also called the Cursor.


Text Cursor

A flashing vertical line in a text box that indicates where text is to be inserted or marked. It is also called the Caret.


OverView
Overview of Spinner 1.0 for Windows

The Spinner program generates random numbers, one at a time, by emulating a roulette wheel. The process is essentially as follows:

(1) The system clock, which indicates the number of milliseconds since Windows was started, runs all the time. Hence it produces a sequence of numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, etc. that does not repeat (unless Windows is run continuously for about 49 days).

(2) The Spinner performs a simple arithmetic operation to convert this sequence into a repeating sequence of numbers in the required range.

(3) When the Spin button is pressed, the current number from the repeating sequence is used as a random number.

(4) Since the number is determined by the exact time when the Spin button is pressed,  it is highly unpredictable and fairly random.

The Spinner program cannot be used to generate random numbers for Monte Carlo simulation, because

(1) The distribution is not sufficiently uniform.

(2) Generating enough random numbers for a reliable simulation would take too much operator time and effort.

The Spinner program can be used to generate:

(1) Passwords that nobody else can reconstruct, even if they use the same Spinner program.

(2) Unique signature blocks that are not likely to be duplicated accidentally.

You can set the range of numbers to be generated. See Range Selection.

The generated numbers are displayed in a read-only text box in decimal form, separated by commas, ten numbers per line. As many as 500 can be generated. The numbers can easily be incorporated into a C or Pascal array initializer.