Re: [FWP] Re: Golf: chessboard

[Mike Pullen <mpullen@midwest.net>]

Rick Klement <rklement@pacbell.net> writes:

> Ton Hospel wrote:
> > 
> > $_=pop;s/\d/$|x$&/eg;s/./--$|?$&||$":$&||"."/eg;y|/|\n|;print
> 
> Cool use of a toggling variable, though.

I am trying to understand why --$| does what it does.  $|=0 by
default.  --$| should subtract 1 and keep subtracting on each
iteration.  'perlop' says -- is not magic, it does not magically
decrement, similar to the way ++ increments.

$| is evaluated in a boolean context, right?  Evidently, '--' can toggle the state of a
boolean.  But how did you figure this out?  I can't find it in the documentation.

-- 
Mike Pullen
http://www.midwest.net/scribers/mpullen

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