Re: initial stages of scripting

On 8 May 2008, at 12:36, Hayden Smith wrote:
> Hi Ellie,
> Thanks for the suggestions, but as is evident from this code - I  
> believe - I am a relative newbie and therefore, the logic behind  
> this - at this point - is beyond me. Oh well, back to the bottom of  
> the class for me.
> Cheers

Well I didn't want to ruin your homework assignment for you so I sort  
of dodged around your actual task. Apologies if the following breaks  
that rule, but getting the hang of basic loops etc. is a fundamental  
if you want to really enjoy programming.

If I lay out your code to better reflect the logical structure it  
looks like this:

		question = 1
		unless question == 20
			score = 0
			number_of_questions = 0
			num1 = rand(20)
			num2 = rand(20)
			correct_answer = num1 + num2
			puts("What is #{num1} + #{num2}/?")
			user_answer = gets.chomp!.to_i
		end
		score += 1
		number_of_questions += 1
		question += 1
		puts("Well done! That is correct.\nYou have answered #{score} out of  
#{number_of_questions} questions correctly.")
	end
	exit

Clearly there's either a fragment missing at the very start which  
would matches with the final 'end' statement, or else your first 'end'  
statement is an erroneous inclusion. This is one of the reasons for  
laying out code with clear indentation - it makes the logic flow  
glaringly obvious.

It would make sense to put some kind of loop statement at the start  
otherwise there will be no repetition. With this inclusion what you  
have is a classic example of what's known as a sentinel guarded loop.  
You have a sentinel value (in this case 20) and an accumulator  
'question' which changes value with each loop iteration until it  
reaches a specified value. The way in which you would handle this in a  
traditional procedural language such as BASIC would be to write a code  
fragment of this form:

	FOR QUESTION = 1 TO 20
		num1 = RND(20)
		num2 = RND(20)
		correct_answer = num1 + num2
		REM read the value from the keyboard
		REM compare the result and do some stuff
		REM etc.
	END

In Ruby it's more natural for these kinds of problems to use a Range  
object (because Ruby is object-oriented) and then enumerate across it:

	questions = 1..20		# this creates an instance of the Range 1 through 20
	questions.each do |question|
		# actions to do for the question asked
	end

but you can also use a more procedural style:

	questions = 1..20		# this creates an instance of the Range 1 through 20
	for question in questions
		# actions to do for the question asked
	end

and either form would provide the loop that you need to ask the user  
for their answer to successive questions.

If you then study the actions that you're taking in your code and  
consider the actual logic of what you're trying to achieve you'll  
notice that the score generated will be incorrect. This is where my  
suggestion of enumerating a Range object using the inject() method  
rather that each() becomes relevant:

	questions = 1..20		# this creates an instance of the Range 1 through 20
	questions.inject(0) do |sum, question|
		#do stuff
		sum + (some_condition ? 1 : 0)
	end

The 'sum' parameter to the block acts as an accumulator and for each  
element in the range 'questions' whatever the final expression of the  
code block evaluates to will be the value stored in 'sum'. Once all  
elements have been enumerated, the value in 'sum' is then returned by  
inject() as the value of the expression. So for example:

	numbers = 1..20
	result = numbers.inject(0) do |sum, number|
		sum + number
	end

would set 'result' to 210, which is the sum of the first twenty  
integers. The way in which this then applies to your problem:

	questions = 1..20		# this creates an instance of the Range 1 through 20
	correct_answers = questions.inject(0) do |sum, question|
		#do stuff
		sum + (condition_for_correct_answer ? 1 : 0)
	end

The use of the ternary logic operator is compact but for more complex  
behaviour a clearer formulation would be:

	correct_answers = questions.inject(0) do |sum, question|
		#do stuff
		sum + if condition_for_correct_answer ? then
			# print some stuff
			1
		else
			# print some other stuff
			0
		end
	end

which takes advantage of the fact that 'if' is also an expression and  
will return a value which can be used directly. In languages where  
'if' is a statement (and hence does not return a value itself) the  
logic would look more like:

	correct_answers = 0
	questions.each do |question|
		#do stuff
		if condition_for_correct_answer ? then
			# print some stuff
			correct_answers += 1
		else
			# print some other stuff
			correct_answers += 0
		end
	end

which is also valid Ruby.

And if that's not baffled you completely, you'll be well on your way  
to Ruby mastery :)


Ellie

Eleanor McHugh
Games With Brains
http://slides.games-with-brains.net
----
raise ArgumentError unless @reality.responds_to? :reason