Unfortunately, putting the curly braces in doesn't make the code work. The user's input must be repeated in the loop, too, otherwise the code would test the same number again and again.

#! /usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;

my $im_thinking = int rand 10;
print "Pick a number: ";

my $guess = -1;
while ($guess != $im_thinking) {
    $guess = <STDIN>;
    chomp $guess;
    if ($guess > $im_thinking) {
        print "You guessed too high!\n";
    } elsif ($guess < $im_thinking) {
        print "You guessed too low!\n";
    }
}
print "You got it right!\n";
[download]

Update: You can use last and the ternary operator to make the code even simpler:

#! /usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;

my $im_thinking = int rand 10;
print "Pick a number: ";

while () {
    my $guess = <STDIN>;
    chomp $guess;
    last if $guess == $im_thinking;
    print "You guessed too ", $guess < $im_thinking ? 'low' : 'high',
        "\nTry again: ";
}
print "You got it right!\n";
[download]

In the pythonesque code you posted...

Not only Pythonesque, but perhaps also a bit C-ockamamie. The following works, although you have to torture the code to get the syntax right (and the indentation is meaningless). And it still doesn't do anything.

#include <stdio.h>

void main () {

    int x = 5;
    int y = 6;

    while (x != y)
        if (x > y)
            printf("guessed %d: high.  ", x), printf("next guess %d \n
+", x = y);
        else if (x < y)
            printf("guessed %d: low.  ", x), printf("next guess %d \n"
+, x = y+1);
        else
            printf("got it! \n");

    printf("done guessing \n");

    }
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Output:

c:\@Work\GCC\PerlMonks\gavin100>a
guessed 5: low.  next guess 7
guessed 7: high.  next guess 6
done guessing
[download]

Update: Changed node title. This really is OT.

---

Give a man a fish:  <%-{-{-{-<

Thats brilliant, thank you for your time and assistance

Where do you have problems with the code you've shown?

I would suggest reviewing your course materials, especially where they mention the syntax of while and if statements.

For example, perlsyn documents the following structure for a while statement:

 LABEL while (EXPR) BLOCK
[download]

Maybe you can apply that to your problem?

Thank you

Also note that the Perl language uses different operators to compare strings for equality or inequality:   eq, ne, cmp ... see perlop.

Operators such as ==, !=, <=&t; always perform numeric comparison.   Your use of that operator, then, could be part of the problem.

And, by the way, this is a very-conscious design decision made by the original architect(s) of the language.   Perl has always been oriented toward the processing of text files, and this strategy makes it possible to precisely specify, say, sorting operations and so forth when the data being processed (in the text ...) “is a number.”