From: rubyhacker@...
Date: 2005-10-13T05:11:53+09:00
Subject: A (minor) coding challenge

This is one of those things that "anyone can do" and it doesn't
take that long. But it's always fun/educational to see how
different people would do it.

Given: A text is in two languages (say, English and French) --
assume separate files or whatever is convenient. They're
formatted properly, so that paragraphs correspond to each other
predictably. We define a "paragraph" as simply a group of non-blank
lines followed by one or more blank lines or end of file. (Thus
even a simple title or heading would count.) Assume a page length
N (lines per page).

Reformat both texts such that:

1. Corresponding paragraphs start on corresponding lines of the
page.

2. If either paragraph is shorter than the other, it will be padded
with blank lines so that the next paragraphs coincide.

3. Preserve any "extra" blank lines that were already there
between paragraphs.

4. Neither text will allow a page break in the middle of a paragraph.
If it won't fit in either case, do a page break for both.

5. If you want to simplify output, represent a page break as "----"
or the equivalent.


I'll be playing at this in my spare minutes.

Let the games begin.


Hal