[QUIZ] Perl 'Easy' Quiz of the Week #2005-2

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Write a subroutine called print_list that takes a number indicating
the width of the display as a number of characters, and a list of
strings, and prints the strings in a sorted columnar display, using as
many columns that will fit in the display for the given list and as few
rows as possible.

The longest string in one column should appear exactly two spaces away
from the beginning of the next column.  (The columns are not
necessarily the same width.)

Each column should include consecutive elements in the sorted list,
such that the item following the last item in column 1 appears at the
top of column 2, and similarly for the remaining columns.

For example, given:

 @strings = qw(Jonathan Sam Abby Daniel Julia Terrence Constance Al);

print_list(30, @strings) prints:

 Abby       Daniel    Sam
 Al         Jonathan  Terrence
 Constance  Julia

print_list(40, @strings) prints:

 Abby  Constance  Jonathan  Sam
 Al    Daniel     Julia     Terrence

print_list(80, @strings) prints:

 Abby  Al  Constance  Daniel  Jonathan  Julia  Sam  Terrence

And print_list(1, @strings) prints:

 Abby
 Al
 Constance
 Daniel
 Jonathan
 Julia
 Sam
 Terrence

For a real world example of a similar display, see the Unix/Linux command,
'ls'.  For an example of how to determine the actual width of a terminal
window in characters (not required for this quiz, but good to know), see
the Perl Cookbook, 1st or 2nd edition, recipe 15.4.

-- Dan