Question about 'how it looks at things'

Ruby
1

Hi gang,

Okay, this is referring to the ‘Learn to Program’ thread a little bit.

I think I need to know ‘how’ Ruby looks at a script and how it does
it…at
least I think that’s what I want to know.
In other words, take a simple script like the one below (I know this
one
‘stops’ after ‘shouting’ an answer, heh):

puts ‘(Say Hi to grandma)’
say = gets.chomp
while say != say.upcase
puts ‘HUH!? SPEAK UP! WHAT’RE YOU WHISPERIN’ FOR!?’
say = gets.chomp
if say == say.upcase
date = rand(21) + 1930
puts 'NO, NOT SINCE ’ + date.to_s + ‘!’
end
end

Does ruby look at things and work its way down from the beginning or
does it
do one thing and then go back and look at something else and then do it?
Am I
making sense what I’d like to know? The reason I ask is, if I try the
script
below, I keep getting both ‘answers’ from ‘grandma’.:

puts ‘(Say Hi to grandma)’
say = gets.chomp
while say != ‘BYE’
puts ‘HUH!? SPEAK UP! WHAT’RE YOU WHISPERIN’ FOR!?’
say = gets.chomp
if say == say.upcase
date = rand(21) + 1930
puts 'NO, NOT SINCE ’ + date.to_s + ‘!’
if say == ‘BYE’
puts ‘BYE, BYE!’
end
end
end

**Here’s the output:

Hi gramma
HUH!? SPEAK UP! WHAT’RE YOU WHISPERIN’ FOR!?
HI GRAMMA!
NO, NOT SINCE 1949!
HUH!? SPEAK UP! WHAT’RE YOU WHISPERIN’ FOR!?

It looks like my script is going back ‘up’ and then coming back down
all
over again. Does that make sense and does anyone understand what I’m
asking
now about ‘how’ Ruby ‘reads’ a script or whatever? If I can wrap my mind
around the ‘how’ it works, I might be able to figure out these exercises
a
little easier…then again, the answer I get might just confuse me more,
lol.

Thanks,

JB

2

DÅ?a Sobota 01 Apríl 2006 08:53 JB napísal:

puts ‘(Say Hi to grandma)’
Does ruby look at things and work its way down from the beginning or does
if say == say.upcase
Hi gramma
little easier…then again, the answer I get might just confuse me more,
lol.

Thanks,

JB

Well, unless you did Horrible Things to your Ruby interpreter, it should
execute statements sequentially, in the order as they occur in the file.

However, your indentation is horribly confusing, and I have a hunch that
your
problem is related - you lost track of what’s happening in the while
loop.

You do know what a loop is, don’t you? Just in case this happens to be
the
problem, it’s -supposed- to “go back up” and repeat the loop as long as
you
don’t say “BYE” to Grandma…

David V.

3

JB asked:

making sense what I’d like to know? The reason I ask is, if I try the
date = rand(21) + 1930
HUH!? SPEAK UP! WHAT’RE YOU WHISPERIN’ FOR!?
little easier…then again, the answer I get might just confuse me more,
lol.

I’m not sure I understand the question. It might help you to read the
chapter again, and to type all the code in the chapter into irb as you
go,
to get a feel for it.

Here are some notes on how this program goes, after properly indenting
it.

puts ‘(Say Hi to grandma)’ #1
say = gets.chomp #2
while say != ‘BYE’ #3 - if say != ‘BYE’, continue to #4, otherwise
jump to
#13
puts ‘HUH!? SPEAK UP! WHAT’RE YOU WHISPERIN’ FOR!?’ #4
say = gets.chomp #5
if say == say.upcase #6 - if say == say.upcase, continue to #7,
otherwise go to #12
date = rand(21) + 1930 #7
puts 'NO, NOT SINCE ’ + date.to_s + ‘!’ #8
if say == ‘BYE’ #9 - if say == ‘BYE’, continue to #10,
otherwise
jump to #11
puts ‘BYE, BYE!’ #10
end #10
end #11
end #12 - continue from #3
#13

In particular, the trick you need to learn in this chapter is about the
loop
and the conditional.

The conditional “if” is just a way to either run some code or not,
depending
on the condition; program flow continues after the if block.

On the other hand, loops like “while” provide a way to jump back up, and
repeat from a line that has already been executed. Like an “if”, the
code
inside it will only be run if the condition is true, but after it’s been
through once, the condition is evaluated again, and the block will be
run
again if it’s still true. Only when the condition is false will the
program
flow continue beyond the loop.

Try to use these concepts and the comments I put on your code above to
walk
through the program line-by-line and see how the computer gave the
output
you listed.

Hope this helps,
Dave