note mugwumpjism <p>Whilst my answer is longer, I think you will find it simulates a 7 segment display a little closer, and it has a larger, more readable font.</p> <p>This one weighs in at 299 characters, excluding line breaks.</p> <code>sub f{ $i=$_[0];$i=~s/(\d)\./$1|'@'/eg;@c=split//,"\brew\$]m.k{%\177o"; for$a(0..8){for$l(split//,$i){$x=ord$c[ord($l&"?")-45];print do{ if($a%4){$q=($x>>($a>4)*3)&6;($q&2?"|":" ")." ".($q&4?"|":" ") ." ";}else{($x>>($a>>2)*3&1?" ----- ":" "x7). ($a==8&&(($l&"@")eq"@")?" X ":" ");}}}print"\n";}} f(-123.04); f(56789);</code> <p>And the output is:</p> <pre> ----- ----- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ----- ----- ----- ----- | | | | | | | | | | | | ----- ----- X ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ----- ----- ----- ----- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- </pre> <p>Not bad for a first golf attempt? :-)</p> 86805 86805