From: Louis J Scoras <louis.j.scoras@...>
Date: 2006-10-30T01:28:03+09:00
Subject: Re: [QUIZ] Fuzzy Time (#99)

#!/usr/bin/env ruby
################################################################################
# quiz99.rb: Implementation of RubyQuiz #99 - Fuzzy Time
#
# Lou Scoras <louis.j.scoras@gmail.com>
# Sunday, October 29th, around 11 o-clock (*smirks*).
#
# I decided to approximate time to the quarter hour. When people on the street
# bother you for the time, that's probably what they are expecting.  It's been
# my experience that they give you nasty looks when you make them do any
# amount of trivial math =)
#
# This one was a lot of fun.  Thanks again to James and Gavin for another great
# quiz.
#
################################################################################

class Time

  # A string representation for times on the quarter hour

  def to_quarter_s
    case min
      when 0
        "#{hour_12} o-clock"
      when 15
        "quarter past #{hour_12}"
      when 30
        "half past #{hour_12}"
      when 45
        n = self + 3600
        "quarter 'till #{n.hour_12}"
    end
  end

  # Let the Time library to the hard work for getting 12 time.

  def hour_12
    (strftime "%I").sub(/\A0/,'')
  end
end

class FuzzyTime

  # Quarter hours fall every 900 seconds

  TimeScale = 60 * 15

  def initialize(time = Time.now)
    @real = @time = time
    @emitted      = nil
  end

  # Use a simple linear scaling to even out the intervals.  This seems to work
  # out okay after a little testing, but it could probably be improved quite a
  # bit.
  #
  # One variable that effects this is the sampling rate.  We're approximating to
  # the nearest quarter hour; however, if you call to_s say once a second, you
  # have a greater chance of bumping up to the next interval than if you
  # increase the time between calls to one minute.

  def to_s
    pick      = rand(TimeScale)
    threshold = TimeScale - @time.to_i % TimeScale - 1
    p [pick, threshold, last_valid, next_valid] if $DEBUG

    @emitted = if (!@emitted.nil? && @emitted > last_valid) \
               || pick >= threshold
      next_valid
    else
      last_valid
    end

    @emitted.to_quarter_s
  end

  def inspect
    t_obj = if @emitted.nil?
      self.class.new(@time).next_valid
    else
      @emitted
    end
    %!FuzzyTime["#{t_obj.to_quarter_s}"]!
  end

  def actual
    @time
  end

  def last_valid
    Time.at(@time.to_i / TimeScale * TimeScale)
  end

  def next_valid
    last_valid + TimeScale
  end

  def advance(offset)
    @real  = Time.now
    @time += offset
    offset
  end

  def update
    now    = Time.now
    delta  = now - @real
    @time += delta
    @real  = now
  end

end

# Err, I forgot what the incantation is on windows.  I think it is 'cls', but
# I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader.  *winks*

ClearString = `clear`
def clear
  print ClearString
end

def get_sample_rate
  default = 60
  return default unless ARGV[0]
  begin
    return ARGV[0].to_i
  rescue
    return default
  end
end

if caller.empty?
  ft = FuzzyTime.new

  while true do
    clear
    puts ft
    sleep get_sample_rate
    ft.update
  end
end