From: JB <directly_above_the_center@..._the_earth.com>
Date: 2006-04-01T10:03:46+09:00
Subject: Re: Learn to Program, by Chris Pine


Dave wrote:

>JB wrote:

>>  I too wish the author had put examples, say on some pages in the back or
>> something.

>But if you ask this group, you can get interactive answers!
>
>Let's start again with that one. We need a loop counting down from 99. So 
>first, we need a counter.
>
>beer = 99
>
>Now, we need to count it down.
>
>beer = beer - 1
>
>But we need to do that repeatedly - it goes in a loop.
>
>beer = 99
>while (something to end the loop?)
>  beer = beer - 1
>end
>
>How long should we keep looping? We don't want to go past zero. In other 
>words, we loop while our counter is zero or more.
>
>beer = 99
>while beer >= 0
>  beer = beer - 1
>end
>
>OK, now we've got the basic structure of the program - one loop, beer starts 
>at 99, and decreases until it gets to 0. But there's no output yet.
>
>See how you go putting some flesh on that skeleton, JB - post back when 
>you're done.

  Hi Dave,

  Okay, here's what I got, and it works too, heh. The 'if' had to be in there,
or else it kept ending with negative numbers (usually -2). This way is as
good as Bill's, but a lot shorter (not putting you down or anything Bill!).

beer = 99
while beer >= 0
    beer = beer - 1
        if (beer - 1) >= 0
        puts beer.to_s + ' ' 'bottles of beer on the wall,' +
             beer.to_s + ' bottles of beer,' +
             'take one down, pass it around,' +
             (beer - 1).to_s + ' ' + 'bottles of beer on the wall!'
        end
end


  Now, to clean it up even more...when it gets down to '1 bottle', I don't
want it to say '1 bottles...' (plural). How would I do this? I tried with an
'else' in there, but for some reason I either made it an infinite loop or it
kept getting the negative numbers all over again.
  I tried with an 'else (beer - 1) == 1' (no quotes of course and that didn't
work either.

  I do appreciate all the help you guys are giving, and yes, the interactive
way will make me work a little harder too to get things right, plus I'm the
kind who *needs* that kind of help or I fail miserably and give up, heh.