friendly comments on some code posted to the ML

gistfile1.rb

# http://www.ruby-forum.com/topic/860689

def ask question
  goodAnswer = false       # The Ruby idiom is to use snake_case for variables
  while (not goodAnswer)   # here, I would say "until goodAnswer"
    puts question
    response = gets.chomp 
    attack = rand(11)
    attacker = rand(11)

    if (response.to_s == 'fight') # gets returns a string (or nil), so response is already a string
      goodAnswer = true
      if attack.to_i >= attacker.to_i # rand(int) returns an int, so calling to_i is unnecessary, these should already be integers
        
        # I recommend using "&&" instead of "and", because I find I often get confused about how "and" binds.
        # For example, this is equivalent to "(answer = true) and (damage = attack - attacker)" 
        # I suppose that is what you wanted, but it confuses me to see it, I would just put them on two lines
        # and any time I wrote code like this, I probably meant "answer = (true and (damage = attack - attacker))"
        # which is what you would get using "&&", so if I saw this in my code, it would probably be a bug. Not sure if it is in yours.
        #
        # also, you do this same calculation three times in this code, that sounds like you should turn it into a variable :)
        answer = true and (damage = (attack.to_i - attacker.to_i))  
        
        # could be simplified to: puts "You win by #{attack - attacker} hitpoints"
        puts 'You Win by ' + (attack.to_i - attacker.to_i).to_s + 'hitpoints'
        gets
        puts 'You are Strong!'
        gets
      else
        answer = false
        puts 'You lose by ' + (attack.to_i - attacker.to_i).to_s + 'hitpoints'
        gets
        puts 'You should have run!'
        gets
      end
    else
      puts 'Please answer fight' # if there is only one valid input here, then maybe notifying the user they are going to fight would be better than telling them what they should be telling you
    end
  end
  answer # this variable looks like it contains whether they won the fight or not, maybe "won" would be a more descriptive name than "answer"
end

hair = ['Lank', 'Greasy', 'Skanky', 'Dirty', 'Smelly']
colour = ['green', 'brown', 'red', 'black', 'wormy', 'slick']

puts 'Your Health begins at 100 hitpoints, you have 5 lives'
print 'A queue of Orcs is lining up to attack you, press enter to continue...'
initialise = gets # I wouldn't assign the gets to a variable, since you don't plan to do anything with it, or use it at all.
reply = 'yes'

health = 100
orchealth = 100
orcs = 0
lives = 0

while reply == 'yes'
  # "matches" here doesn't seem like a good variable name, since this variable seems to contain whether the player won the fight or not
  matches = ask 'Do you attack? (type:fight)' 
  puts 'Did you win?'
  gets
  puts
  puts matches

  if matches == false # Here I would say "if !matches"
    then health = (health - 50) # I don't know if your use of the word "then" is valid here, or not, but I wouldn't put it in
    orcheath = orchealth # misspelled on the LHS, but this might be a mistake, do you mean to assign it the value it already contains?
    gets
    puts
    puts 'The Orc\'s health is now ' + orchealth.to_s
    gets
    puts 'Your health is now ' + health.to_s
    puts
    gets
    puts 'Would you like to fight again? (please answer yes to play again or enter to quit'
    reply = gets.chomp

  # here, if you want to pass a condition, it should be "elsif", but matches can only be true or false,
  # and we know it isn't false, because your first if checks for that, so we can just use a simple "else"
  else matches == true 
    health = health 
    orchealth = (orchealth - 50) # a shorthand version of this is: orchealth -= 50
    puts
    puts 'The Orc\'s health is now ' + orchealth.to_s
    gets
    puts 'Your health remains at ' + health.to_s
    puts
    gets
    puts 'Would you like to fight again? (please answer yes to play again or enter to quit'
    reply = gets.chomp


    # You said "It appears to wait until orc health is zero to process the player's health, even if player's health is a minus number."
    # That is because this code is inside of the else statement, which only gets executed when matches is true. 
    # and matches is only true when you won the last fight, so if the orc beats you and your health is zero, then matches is false,
    # and this code is not executed. Probably you want it after the if statement, rather than in the else portion.
    
    while (orchealth == 0) or (health == 0) # I would write this: orchealth.zero? || health.zero?
      while orchealth <= 0
        orcs = (orcs + 1) and orchealth = 100 # I would just put these on two lines, or use parallel assignment: orcs , orchealth = orcs + 1 , 100
        puts 'The number of orcs killed so far is: ' + orcs.to_s
        gets
        puts
        # rand(4) will give you one of 0,1,2,3 but not 4, so "smelly" hair will never be selected. 
        # one alternative is to do "hair[rand hair.size]", which will then be correct even if you add or remove more hair styles
        puts 'A new Orc arrives to fight, he has ' + hair[rand(4)].to_s + ', ' + 
        colour[rand(5)].to_s +  ' hair, his health is 100'
        gets
      end

      while health <= 0
        lives = (lives + 1) and health = 100
        puts 'The number your of lives used so far is: ' + lives.to_s
        gets
        puts
        puts 'You use up a life and your health is now 100 again'
        gets
      end

      while lives >=5
        puts 'you die' # seems a little cruel ;)
        reply = 'no'

      end
    end
  end
end
puts 'Goodbye and farewell...'