The string of pearls was done on CS2
The orange "pearls" had a stroke weight of 40 pt, Dash 0, Gap 42 and a new black stroke behind with a weight of 42 pt.
Then the stroke was copied, coloured just white and moved a bit to make the white "highlights". Weight 10 pt, Dash 0, Gap 42.
I suppose, if one could be bothered, it would be possible to make a string of pearls with alternating big and small pearls by using a combination of dash settings on New Strokes. Should work all right as long as the Dash is a constant or an exact multiple. I can't be bothered!
I don't understand that bit about having the last gap as 0. The pearls came out fine with just one setting for the dash and one for the gap. The other boxes weren't filled in.