From: Mustafa Yilmaz <myilmaz@...>
Date: 2006-06-25T23:07:33+09:00
Subject: [QUIZ][SOLUTION] pp Pascal (#84)

# Pascal's Triangle (Ruby Quiz #84)
# by Mustafa Yilmaz
#
# This is the second Ruby program I've ever written and it's not 
optimized (and probably not
# leveraging the power of Ruby), so don't expect to much ;-) The code 
should be self-explanatory,
# if you have any questions though don't hesitate to ask me.
#
# My approach is to create a PDF file using the PDF::Writer libraries in 
order to get the
# centering right. Furthermore, I'm computing the binomial coefficent as 
discussed before to
# approximate the width of the largest number in the triangle.
#
# One could improve the program by dynamically adjusting the used text 
size to scale the text
# depending on the size of the triangle to make use of the whole page size.
#
# You can download an example pdf file from 
http://www.mustafayilmaz.net/pascal.pdf
#

begin
  require 'pdf/writer'
rescue LoadError => le
  if le.message =~ %r{pdf/writer$}
    $LOAD_PATH.unshift("../lib")
    require 'pdf/writer'
  else
    raise
  end
end

class Integer
  def factorial
    self <= 1 ? 1 : self * (self-1).factorial
  end
end

class Binomial_Coefficient
  def self.compute(n, r)
    n.factorial / (r.factorial * (n-r).factorial)
  end
end

class Pascal
  def self.create_pdf(lines, font_size, filename)
    max_width = Binomial_Coefficient.compute(lines, lines / 
2).to_s.length + 2
    pdf = PDF::Writer.new(:paper => "A4", :orientation => :landscape)
    pdf.select_font "Courier"
    pdf.text "Pascal's Triangle (Ruby Quiz #84)\n\n\n", :font_size => 
10, :justification => :center
    previous_result = Array.[](0, 1, 0)
    s = "1".center(max_width)
    while lines > 0 do
      pdf.text "#{s}\n\n", :font_size => font_size, :justification => 
:center
      current_result = Array.new 
      previous_result[0..-2].each_index do |i|
        current_result << previous_result[i] + previous_result[i+1]
      end  
      s = String.new
      current_result.each_index do |i|
        s << current_result[i].to_s.center(max_width)
      end
      current_result = Array.[](0).concat(current_result) << 0
      previous_result = current_result
      lines -= 1
    end
    pdf.save_as(filename)
  end
end

Pascal.create_pdf(20, 8, "pascal.pdf")