Eugene van der Pijll wrote:
>
> En op 10 maart 2002 sprak [EMAIL PROTECTED]:
>
> > Rick is a brilliant golfer and I feel sure he would have found the
> > same "ugly" improvement from s/$&/$&/g to split$& had he not been
> > suffering from the giggles.
>
> That was NOT an ugly improvement, IMNSHO. When I thought up the idea of
> counting the fenceposts, I had about the same reaction as Rick when he
> found the s/$&/$&/ solution.
That split$& was a brilliant move, not ugly at all. I look at that one as
asking the right question: "do you want to count items, or the gaps
between items?" Sometimes it's not finding a good answer that's important,
it's finding a good question!
>
> > 3) Be pragmatic. Don't get too carried away with fanciful solutions.
> >
> > This is a common failing among chess players; they spend an hour
> > or more analysing a fanciful line, only to reject it and find
> > themselves in time trouble later in the game.
> >
> > Perhaps, Eugene and Stephen Turner fell into this trap in the
> > secret number game, where they both pursued deliciously complex
> > variations involving the (${}) construct in preference to simpler
> > more pragmatic solutions involving s///eg.
>
> Actually, I did look for other solutions; I just could not find them.
> I did not try the s///eg within s///eg way, as I was sure that couldn't
> work. Earlier, I had tried things like m#___(?{___/./___})___#, which
> produced an error message about non-reentrant regex-routines.
>
> I know... I should have tried anyway.
I missed moving from 47 to 46 on Base36 because I was sure I couldn't
put an assignment in a "map" without braces. I was wrong... :(
> > Most of the top Perl golfers have such good technique that if you
> > throw them an idea, they can quickly refine it into a solution.
> > But how do you find the ideas?
>
> Read manpages. Perlrun, perlvar, perlfunc and perlre especially.
>
> Turn off the computer and go do something else that does not require
> much thinking. I get most ideas in the shower, in bed just before I go
> to sleep, or while riding a bike to/from work. (If anyone on fwp lives
> around Utrecht & drives a car: please be careful during golf games.
> Thank you.)
I solved wc.pl in the shower. I did most of my improvements on
even.pl in bed (no, I don't have a computer in there). I found "*1.11%10"
and how to eliminate the "chop" in, ahem, "another room" of the house :)
Try applying the "Monty Python" rule:
"And now for something completely different."
If you're using a formula, try a regex.
If you're using a regex, try a formula.
After I found the s/$&/$&/g, I spent at least an entire day trying
to find a regex for even.pl so that the entire solution would be:
-p s/REGEX//
but never could find a REGEX short enough.
(I hope these tips don't help anyone - there are enough sharks out there :)
--
Rick Klement
