Perhaps the lingo here is beyond me, but what kind of "challenge" already has a solution? I thought companies like Micro$oft and others actually challenged people to try to hack their software--for money if holes could be found. Was that not a "challenge" because they didn't already know of the holes' existence? And why would they have offered people a reward for finding what they already knew?

Oh, well, as I've said before, I'm not a real programmer. Maybe that's why there's been so many down-votes on this one. I had thought maybe some people just didn't like seeing the Bible texts or something, or that I had posted too much code (trying to be helpful).

Regardless of what one might call this--it seems that most have no good solution, only a few clues and ideas.

As to the "plagiarism"--there was plenty of that in the Bible. There are places where a whole chapter is the same as another part. Sometimes the original writer is mentioned--often not. "Plagiarism" appears to be an unbiblical concept. According to the Bible, all wisdom is from God, and any person taking credit to himself/herself is the one truly "plagiarizing."

I can't see that you have been downvoted in this thread and I certainly never did.

But IMHO is "challenge" indeed the wrong lingo here and in the open source world.

See also https://perlweeklychallenge.org/

> it seems that most have no good solution, only a few clues and ideas.

Well YMMV but in my view I've already given you excellent counseling and spend considerable time trying to help you.

One of the mantras of this site is "not a code writing service!"

We want you and other - current or future - readers of this thread to learn and make advances in programing Perl. That's why we share for free.

But you keep repeating that you don't like the math or real programming.

So probably you might be better served by hiring a "real" programmer?

Since you already mentioned that M$ is paying for their "challenges", this seems to be your go-to model.

Good luck! :)

Cheers Rolf
_{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :)
Wikisyntax for the Monastery}

I've only actually observed about five downvotes here, but I lost multiple XP points on this one leading me to think there have been more. In any case, I'd be happy to lose more points yet if only I might find a solution. Did you look at the math in the article you linked? I think maybe you didn't see it. You have to click on the images to display them--they're the kind of derivatives and integrations that one usually meets in a calculus class. I don't remember how to do them. If that's easy math for you, you're well above my league, and my hat's off to you. There are times when I've considered hiring a programmer, but have no idea how to go about it or whom to trust. And I'm on a low budget. Very low. Presently, I'm unemployed--ever since the latter part of last year on account of COVID-related circumstances. And I was essentially a volunteer (low pay) for years prior to that in a third-world country. No, if I want to get something done with this project that will benefit others, I must just plug away at it with 120% of my ability. I really do appreciate perlmonks.org. The folk here, like yourself, have been so very helpful, on multiple occasions, and I am grateful.

Blessings,

~Polyglot~