From: c p r a s l e y at h o m e dot c o m <not@...> (Chris)
Date: 2002-01-27T15:13:51+09:00
Subject: Re: Coding challenge :-)

On Sun, 20 Jan 2002 13:50:45 GMT, David Alan Black
<dblack@candle.superlink.net> wrote in comp.lang.ruby:

>allowing for out-of-order numbers (which have to be put in
>order), negative numbers, mixed input ("1,8,5,-3,10,-2,3-4",
>which should come out as both "-3--2,1,3-5,8,10" and
>"-3,-2,1,3,4,5,8,10"), etc.

"-3--2" is ugly.  You should use a different range indicator such as
"-3/-2,1,3/5,8,10" or a more Ruby-like "-3..-2,1,3..5,8,10".  Ranges of
two units are no more efficiently stated as a range than they would be as
a list of two items, so the ideal result would probably be
"-3,-2,1,3..5,8,10".