From: "John W. Kennedy" <jwkenne@...>
Date: 2004-01-22T13:34:58+09:00
Subject: Re: New to Python: my impression v. Perl/Ruby

Gregory Millam wrote:
> Ever since I started using ruby, I don't believe I've actually looped based on numbers for actual programming. Why should I, since there is usually a number of better ways to do so, especially when doing it the 'ruby way'.

> String's "each_byte" and Array's 'each' method defeats over 99% of the 'for (i=0;i<somenum;i++)' loops I'd use in C.

Well, here is an example of "times" from a real program.  The point is 
to determine whether 2^n-1 is a prime, given that n is an odd prime.

	tprime = (1 << n) - 1
	test = 4
	(n - 2).times {test = (test * test - 2) % tprime}
	puts "(2**#{n})-1, #{tprime}, is prime" if test.zero?

-- 
John W. Kennedy
"But now is a new thing which is very old--
that the rich make themselves richer and not poorer,
which is the true Gospel, for the poor's sake."
   -- Charles Williams.  "Judgement at Chelmsford"