The goal of an exercice is often not so much to get a job done but to learn and master some imposed method(s). By nature an exercice is often so simple that it can be often solved more easily by other methods than the imposed one.

Then, one have to learn for a specific problem which method is appropriate. You already do! The problem is that bondage languages like Java don't let programmers choose and force on them the OO methodology that is overkill for small programs.

So, as a Zen perlmonk, see this exercise as a preparation to more complex problems instead of complaining that OO imposed on you is not optimal here.

-- stefp