From: Yannick Grams <yannick_grams@...>
Date: 2007-03-03T19:41:48+09:00
Subject: Re: File Question

Thankyou very much for the helpful hints. A quick question: how long does it 
take until one is able to think of smart ways around programming? I've been 
doing this for about a year, and I have improved greatly, but not as much as 
I should like.

>From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com>
>Reply-To: ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org
>To: ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org (ruby-talk ML)
>Subject: Re: File Question
>Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2007 18:55:09 +0900
>
>On 03.03.2007 09:52, Yannick Grams wrote:
>>Harry wrote:
>>>>This is a rather strange request, but here goes. I'm writing a program 
>>>>which
>>>>will store output in a .txt file. There are seventeen (17) lines of 
>>>>output,
>>>>and each one must be placed under one another. However, when the output 
>>>>gets
>>>>too long (about 10200 characters), it messes up the formatting. My 
>>>>question
>>>>is whether or not there is a way to make it so that the lines will go on
>>>>infinitely. If I haven't explained this very well, forgive me, and let 
>>>>me
>>>>know.
>>>>
>>>Can you show some code?
>>>It will make it easier to understand what you mean and where the problem 
>>>is.
>>>
>>>Harry
>>
>>First, a small explanation. Some of you may have heard of ASCII art. It 
>>involves using symbols such as @ and # in Notepad to create words or 
>>images. My program will take input from the user, and then turn this into 
>>ASCII. Here is an excerpt:
>>
>>line1 = []
>>line2 = []
>>line3 = []
>>line4 = []
>>line5 = []
>>line6 = []
>>line7 = []
>>line8 = []
>>line9 = []
>>line10 = []
>>line11 = []
>>line12 = []
>>line13 = []
>>line14 = []
>>line15 = []
>>line16 = []
>>line17 = []
>>a1 = "...@@@...."
>>a2 = ".@@@@@@@.."
>>a3 = "@@@...@@@."
>>a4 = "@@@...@@@."
>>a5 = "@@@...@@@."
>>a6 = "@@@...@@@."
>>a7 = "@@@...@@@."
>>a8 = "@@@...@@@."
>>a9 = "@@@...@@@."
>>a10 = "@@@...@@@."
>>a11 = "@@@@@@@@@."
>>a12 = "@@@@@@@@@."
>>a13 = "@@@...@@@."
>>a14 = "@@@...@@@."
>>a15 = "@@@...@@@."
>>a16 = "@@@...@@@."
>>a17 = "@@@...@@@."
>>puts "INPUT TEST"
>>input = gets.chomp.to_s.downcase
>>input.each_byte do |x|
>>   x = x.chr
>>   if x == "a"
>>     line1.push(a1)
>>     line2.push(a2)
>>     line3.push(a3)
>>     line4.push(a4)
>>     line5.push(a5)
>>     line6.push(a6)
>>     line7.push(a7)
>>     line8.push(a8)
>>     line9.push(a9)
>>     line10.push(a10)
>>     line11.push(a11)
>>     line12.push(a12)
>>     line13.push(a13)
>>     line14.push(a14)
>>     line15.push(a15)
>>     line16.push(a16)
>>     line17.push(a17)
>>   else
>>     #other letters
>>   end
>>end
>>$File = File.open("test.txt", "w")
>>$File.puts(line1.join, line2.join, line3.join, line4.join, line5.join, 
>>line6.join, line7.join, line8.join, line9.join, line10.join, line11.join, 
>>line12.join, line13.join, line14.join, line15.join, line16.join, 
>>line17.join)
>>$File.close
>>
>>I know it isn't very good, as I'm only a beginner programmer. This excerpt 
>>will work for the letter "a" alone. Try it out: it will only store a 
>>maximum of 102 A's until the format goes all crazy in the Notepad file. If 
>>you know of any way to fix this, I'd be grateful for your help.
>
>** SPOILER **
>
>Don't read on if you want to try further for yourself.
>
>
>Some suggestions for improvement: use arrays and indexing to hold your 
>lines and also your character items.  Use the block form of File.open as it 
>is safer.
>
># const definitions
>CHARACTERS = {
>   ?a = [
>     "...@@@....",
>     ".@@@@@@@..",
>     # etc.
>   ],
>   ?b = [
>   ],
>   # etc.
>}
>
># get input
>input = "aa"
>
># create output
>lines = Array.new(17) { "" }
>
>input.each_byte do |b|
>   char = CHARACTERS[b]
>
>   lines.each_with_index do |line, idx|
>     line << char[idx]
>   end
>end
>
># write output
>File.open("out.txt", "w") do |io|
>   lines.each do |line|
>     io.puts line
>   end
>end
>
>Even more efficient would be to proceed line wise and not create the result 
>in memory at all but write directly to the file.
>
>Kind regards
>
>	robert
>

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