initialize to random

It seems like adding randomness is an important part of eterna. Could we optionally start from a random set of basepairs in the stacks and random bases in the loops, or add a mode to do this?

Hmmm perhaps a button that’ll randomly color the whole sequence?

That could be really useful - it’s now case #233 in our bug/feature tracker.

Hi Brad and Jee, I think this could be a real time saver, But - with the modification that it only be random A-U pairs, and with the customization option of user selection of how many consecutive Uracils (1 to 3, 1 to 4, 2 to 4, etc). I think random of all 4 bases, would be confusing and counter-productive.

Brad: This is a terrific idea, but we have decided not to fix it for now. Our reasoning is that part of learning to play EteRNA is learning that the initial sequence is incorrect. While we could help users understand this by adding an extra “randomize” button to the interface, we thought that the additional interface complexity does not justify the benefit. Please feel free to comment on this decision.