From: Morton Goldberg <m_goldberg@...>
Date: 2007-12-08T11:24:58+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby Nuby Question

On Dec 7, 2007, at 2:12 PM, Nigama Xx wrote:

> The first question I had was, for some reason, if you input "BYE!" for
> the second or third required "BYE" (to exit/end the program), it
> launches into an infinite loop.  Why is that?  BYE works correctly.
> What is it about "BYE!"?

<snip>

>   if talk == 'BYE'
>       puts 'EYE?  WHAT\'S WRONG WITH YOUR EYE?'
>       talk = gets.chomp
>       while talk != 'BYE'
>           if talk != talk.upcase
>             puts 'HUH?!  SPEAK UP, SONNY!'
>           elsif talk == talk.upcase && talk != 'BYE'
>             year = 1
>             while year < 30
>               year = rand(51)
>             end
>             puts 'NO, NOT SINCE 19' + year.to_s + '!'
>           end
>       end
>
>       if talk == 'BYE'
>         puts 'OH VERY WELL, SEE YOU ANOTHER TIME, THEN!'
>       end
>   end


Nothing is really special about "BYE!". Because you don't ask for  
input within the while-loop, any response other than "BYE" will put  
it into an infinite loop. The following revision will work.

<code>
if talk == 'BYE'
    puts 'EYE?  WHAT\'S WRONG WITH YOUR EYE?'
    talk = gets.chomp
    while talk != 'BYE'
       if talk != talk.upcase
          puts 'HUH?!  SPEAK UP, SONNY!'
       elsif talk == talk.upcase && talk != 'BYE'
          year = 1
          while year < 30
             year = rand(51)
          end
          puts 'NO, NOT SINCE 19' + year.to_s + '!'
       end
       talk = gets.chomp # <--- new code here
    end
    if talk == 'BYE'
       puts 'OH VERY WELL, SEE YOU ANOTHER TIME, THEN!'
    end
end
</code>

Also you might be interested in simplifying your code -- for example:

<code>
if talk == 'BYE'
    puts 'EYE?  WHAT\'S WRONG WITH YOUR EYE?'
    talk = gets.chomp
    while talk != 'BYE'
       if talk != talk.upcase
          puts 'HUH?!  SPEAK UP, SONNY!'
       else
          puts "NO, NOT SINCE #{1930 + rand(21)}!"
       end
       talk = gets.chomp
    end
    puts 'OH VERY WELL, SEE YOU ANOTHER TIME, THEN!'
end
</code>

> Second question is... what if I wanted the program to require you  
> to say
> "BYE" three times in a row instead of just three times throughout the
> conversation.  Is there any easy way to do this?


Depends what you mean by easy. I don't think it would be difficult,  
but it would require a fair amount of rewriting. Don't have the time  
now to go into the details. I'm sorry.

Regards, Morton