James Edward Gray II wrote:
> 
> On Sep 24, 2004, at 12:39 PM, Jamis Buck wrote:
> 
>> Ruby Quiz wrote:
>>
>>> 6.  Find the output letter.  Convert the top card to it's value and 
>>> count down
>>> that many cards from the top of the deck, with the top card itself 
>>> being card
>>> number one.  Look at the card immediately after your count and 
>>> convert it to a
>>> letter.  This is the next letter in the keystream.  If the output 
>>> card is a
>>> joker, no letter is generated this sequence.  This step does not 
>>> alter the deck.
>>>  For our example, the output letter is:
>>>     D  (the 2 tells us to count down to the 4, which is a D)
>>
>>
>> Step six says that the "top card itself [is] card number one". That 
>> said, if I count 2 from the top, with the top card being #1, shouldn't 
>> that have given me a 3 (per the listing in step 5), instead of a 4? 
>> Which means the first output letter would be "C"...
>>
>> Am I missing something? Did I misread the instructions, or is there an 
>> error there?
> 
> 
> The top card is number one, yes, and you do count down two cards.  The 
> instructions for step 6 say, immediately after that, "Look at the card 
> immediately after your count and...".  So card 2 is number 1, card 3 is 
> number 2 and the card immediately after that count is card 4.
> 
> I apologize if it isn't clear.  I was disappointed with how long and 
> complex I made that quiz look, it's actually a super simple procedure.

Thanks for the clarification, James. This is great fun. :) I've actually 
got it working! (I did it the hard way, though, using Copland...I 
figured it might be another good way to demonstrate how to use IoC, even 
though the assignment is really much too small to use IoC efficiently...)

- Jamis

-- 
Jamis Buck
jgb3 / email.byu.edu
http://www.jamisbuck.org/jamis

"I use octal until I get to 8, and then I switch to decimal."