From: Rob Biedenharn <Rob@...>
Date: 2010-01-23T00:49:00+09:00
Subject: Re: Argh?! :) kEND, $end and kELSE in a simple program


On Jan 22, 2010, at 10:33 AM, Jet Koten wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I'm completely new to programming and am learning using Ruby.
>
> I'm trying to get this program working using only these basic commands
> that are in my program:
>
> puts 'Say something to the virtual hard-of-hearing Grandpa:'
> while true
>  said=gets.chomp
>  year = (1930+rand(51))
>  counter=0
>  if said=='GOODBYE'
>  counter+=1
>    if counter==3
>      break
>    end
>  end
>  elsif said !=said.upcase
>    puts 'HUH?! SAY IT LOUDER!'
>    counter-=1
>  end
>  else
>    puts 'NO, NOT SINCE '+year.to_s+'!'
>    counter-=1
>  end
> end
>
> So basically it's supposed to be that it'll just loop forever unless  
> you
> say GOODBYE three times in a row... and not just three times with
> something else in between.
>
> Otherwise if you say anything lowcase it'll say HUH?! [...] and if you
> say anything upcase it should say NOT SINCE and a random number  
> between
> 1930 and 1950. I had all the basic functionality working like this:
>
> puts 'Say something to the virtual hard-of-hearing Grandpa:'
> while true
>  said=gets.chomp
>  year = (1930+rand(21))
>  if said !=said.upcase
>    puts 'HUH?! SAY IT LOUDER!'
>  else puts 'NO, NOT SINCE '+year.to_s+'!'
>  end
> end
>
>
> I'm really stuck about getting 'him' to break after the 3 GOODBYEs  
> in a
> row, I've written the code the best I can and now all I get are  
> various
> combinations of kEND, $end and kELSE. I'm guessing it's some kind of
> scope issue but I don't know enough to know what I don't know... you
> know? :)
>
> Can anyone see what will get 'him' working using just the same basic
> commands that are in this program already?
>
> Thanks in advance.

You have extra 'end's where you don't need them (see the ones I  
commented out):

puts 'Say something to the virtual hard-of-hearing Grandpa:'
while true
   said=gets.chomp
   year = (1930+rand(51))
   counter=0
   if said=='GOODBYE'
     counter+=1
     if counter==3
       break
     end
   #end
   elsif said !=said.upcase
     puts 'HUH?! SAY IT LOUDER!'
     counter-=1
     #end
   else
     puts 'NO, NOT SINCE '+year.to_s+'!'
     counter-=1
   end
end

In general, kEND or kELSE means that is a keyword either missing of  
found where it shouldn't be. And $end means the end of the file.

So if you get an error like:
   "syntax error, unexpected $end, expecting kEND"

It means:
   "you seem to have broken one of Ruby's syntax rules,
    I ran out of stuff in this file to look at
    while I was looking for an 'end' keyword"

-Rob

Rob Biedenharn		http://agileconsultingllc.com
Rob@AgileConsultingLLC.com