Someone once said, "Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself."

Arthur C. Clark said, "the only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible."

I made my suggestion quite seriously. Yes, the task itself is impossible but attempting it isn't and there are a great many things to learn by trying. The very limits of computing, for instance.

Furthermore, as Walt Disney said, "it's kind of fun to do the impossible." What suggestion did you offer? To take an app he had done before and redo it? Or to write a tool that he needs? That's not fun graff, that's work! (Useless busy work in the first case.) Would it be educational? Maybe. In the same sense that listening to a boring professor lecture in a monotone is. He'd learn something from it if he stuck through it.

My suggestion might be impossible to complete, but he would have had fun trying. When you are having fun with a new subject, it's amazing how quickly you learn without even realizing it. You just look back one day and think, "wow!" On the other hand, when you are focused on the learning itself rather than letting it take a backseat to enjoyment, it's a frustrating experience.

It wasn't my intention to poke fun at a newbie and I certainly wasn't taking anything out on him. You have misjudged my intentions and my character. Has my history here really left such a poor impression? Sigh. Oh well. Everyone lives in their own dream.

-sauoq
"My two cents aren't worth a dime.";

Just having the OP try it would make him think about perl in new ways. I dont think it is a bad question. ++ sauoq.

-Waswas

$|++;
print "0";
open OUT, ">/dev/null";
select OUT;
eval $ARGV[0];
select STDOUT;
print "\cH1\n";
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Update: Oops, I missed the part about outputting "1 character" - it looks like 1 character though.

All code given here is UNTESTED unless otherwise stated.

#!/bin/perl
# usage testforever <scriptname>
#
$|++;
# Of course -- nothing can run forever.
print "1";
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