I'm attempting to present an SSCCE. I realized that I can use directories on github, and I read somewhere that a good name for a default directory in perl development is 'lib'. I have a calling script which uses Path::Tiny to find an input file in 'lib'. The following link contains the entire source and input file: SSCCE (1.1 kB).

Update:In the time between when I posted the problem and when I have solutions, laden with tests, this workspace has grown to just under 5k. The first script 1.sscce.pl should still "work," but one can see how much distance we traveled by looking at 5.sscce.pl .

But one need not chase an external link to comment on the substance of my question. I'm a fortran then a C guy, so I'm alway tempted to go to external loops to set values in arrays. Likewise, the c technique of doing one char at a time is effective, but not extensible the way I desire. I do not seek solutions here that look like fortran or c. The perl solution is elegant and attainable.

Caller is pretty plain, but I'll put code and initial output between readmore tags:

$ pwd
/home/bob/Desktop/SSCCE-master/sscce
$ ls
1.sscce.pl  lib
$ cat 1.sscce.pl 
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.011;
use Path::Tiny;
use lib "lib";
use Data::Dump;

my $path_to_file = path( "lib", "1.txt" );
my $guts = $path_to_file->slurp;
say "return1 is ";
say "$guts";
my @lines = $path_to_file->slurp;
say "return2 is ";
say "@lines";
my $ref_lines = \@lines;
my $width     = 6;
my $length    = 4;
my $ref_array = make_rectangular1( $guts, $width, $length );

#dd $ref_array;

sub make_rectangular1 {
  my ( $guts, $width, $length ) = @_;

  my $ref_array = "nothing yet";
  return $ref_array;
}

sub make_rectangular2 {
  my ( $ref_array, $width, $length ) = @_;
  my @new_array = @$ref_array;
  say "new array is ";
  say "@new_array";

  #my $ref_array = "nothing yet";
  return $ref_array;
}

__END__ 
$
[download]

$ ./1.sscce.pl 
return1 is 
abcdef
abcdefg
abcde
 bcdefgh
 bcd    




return2 is 
abcdef
abcdefg
abcde
 bcdefgh
 bcd    




$
[download]

What I would like is for these inputs to get trimmed to an array of the size specified by $width and $length . Spaces added/substituted on right if necessary to pad each vector to the same size. There's a sub stubbed out for each of the slurp possibilities.

Also, what character is it that renders an entire space dark?

Thanks for your comment,