I really like that syntax, I didn't know you could do that, but it looks good and reads well!

I'd stick a 'no value yet' die into the first position in the array. For these graphic representations, it is often useful to have an image to represent "unknown". And, in this case, placing the unknown at index 0 aligns the die value with the index for the appropriate image.

In fact, if an array is not fully populated, but there is a "natural" numerical index, I will often align the elements in the array based on the natural index. If the array becomes 'sparse enough', then I use a hash instead. What constitutes sparse enough depends on a number of issues, like comparative memory usage, etc. 

my @dicearray = ( <<unknown_die, <<die1, <<die2, <<die3, <<die4, <<die
+5, <<die6 );
    ##############
    #            #
    # ? ? ? ? ?  #
    #            #
    # ? ? ? ? ?  #
    #            #
    ##############
unknown_die
    ##############
    #            #
    #            #
    #      #     #
    #            #
    #            #
    ##############
die1
    ##############
    #            #
    #            #
    #   #   #    #
    #            #
    #            #
    ##############
die2 
...

print $dicearray[$die_value];  # no pesky manipulation of the index he
+re!

[download]


TGI says moo

In reply to Re^3: two dice question by TGI
in thread two dice question by convenientstore

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.