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CS 368-1 (2011 Summer) — Day 2 Homework

Due Thursday, July 14th, at the start of class.

Description

Write a Perl script that guesses a number that the user has in mind.

Details

This should be a fairly straightforward exercise that uses basic Perl syntax: loops, conditionals, variables, etc.

The user will run the script, think of a number between 1 and 100, and then the script will repeatedly guess what the number is. For each guess, the user indicates whether it is correct, too high, or too low. A typical interaction might look like this:

% homework-02-script
Welcome to the number-guessing game!
Think of a number between 1 and 100.

I guess 50.
Is this (c)orrect, (h)igh, or (l)ow? h
Too high, I'll guess lower.

I guess 25.
Is this (c)orrect, (h)igh, or (l)ow? l
Too low, I'll guess higher.

I guess 42.
Is this (c)orrect, (h)igh, or (l)ow? c
I got it!

%

While a binary search is clearly the optimimal strategy here, it does not really matter what strategy your script implements as long as it is guaranteed to find the answer eventually.

If you use a binary search, there is a simple Perl expression that we have not discussed in class but that may be helpful. Specifically, you can find the integer portion of a floating-point number like this:

my $x = int(23 / 5);

Reminders

Start your script the right way! Here is a suggestion:

#!/usr/bin/perl
# Homework for CS 368-1
# Assigned on Day 02, 2011-07-12
# Written by [Your Name Here]

use strict;
use warnings;

Do the work yourself, consulting reasonable reference materials as needed; any reference material that gives you a complete or nearly complete solution to this problem or a similar one is not OK to use. Asking the instructors for help is OK, asking other students for help is not.

Hand In

A printout of your code on a single sheet of paper. Be sure to put your own name in the “[Your Name Here]” part of the code. Identifying your work is important, or you may not receive appropriate credit.