Why does the perl script on p. 480 have funny-looking line breaks?
The printed novel is one of several distribution media for the Solitaire perl script, and probably the least important; after all, it does no good unless you sit down and type it into a computer, which is a real pain. If you have a computer, you can probably just download the perl from the Counterpane site. Nevertheless, it was my intention to make it possible to type in the script “by hand” from the book and have it work. When I tried this myself, it turned out that line breaks in the script introduced ambiguities that caused it not to work. Therefore, I reformatted the script so that each line in the printed version ends with a semicolon, wherever possible. This removes the ambiguities and makes it possible IN PRINCIPLE to type it correctly, even if you don’t know perl. But the result looks funny if you are a perl aficionado.
