On Fri, 2 Feb 2001, Dave Thomas wrote:
> > that I'm doing that, but..).  Even checking input, I'd really have to
> > take the given operations into account as well
> > (i.e. (2**(2**(2**(2**(... ), would get hairy. ;)
> How about:
>        timeout(1) do
>          ans = 1020939**(ARGV[0].to_i)
>        end



This only works because your base is such a number. DON'T try:



a = 2**2**29
	#=> in `**': tried to allocate too big memory (NoMemoryError)
	#=> also typically crashes a few processes.

b = 2**2**24; nil
	#=> nil -- computes very quickly (not printing the result)

b
	#=> (never gets to print)



matju