If you want a pure iterative solution, you could compute a factor wheel and print everything but the usual trial divisors. The code looks messier, but it requires no mod calculations in the loop, just adds. I computed the wheel using
(so for people following the original articles, we have come full circle...).
use strict;
sub limit_print {
my ($count,@lst) = @_;
return if $count <= 0;
if (@lst <= $count) {
print join(" ",@lst,"");
} else {
print join(" ",@lst[0..$count-1],"");
}
}
# factor wheel for 2,3,5
my @add = (2,2,4,2,4,2,4,6,2,6,4,2,4,2,4,6,2);
# wheel restart point.
my $ws = 9;
my $we = scalar @add - 1;
my @lst = (2,3,4,5);
my $count = $ARGV[0];
limit_print($count, @lst);
$count -= @lst;
if ($count <= 0) {
print "\n" if $count > -4;
exit(0);
}
my $lastskip = 5;
my $place = 6;
my $w = 1;
while ($count > 0) {
# find the next nonmultiple of 2,3, and 5.
my $nextskip = $lastskip + $add[$w];
my @lst = ($place..$nextskip-1);
limit_print($count, @lst);
$count -= @lst;
$place = $nextskip+1;
$lastskip = $nextskip;
$w = $ws if $w++ == $we;
}
print "\n";