Romans and Arabs
6. Zero-based arrays
C arrays began at zero to match memory addressing. In a weakly typed scripting language, there’s exactly no reason to do this. There hasn’t been for decades. Can’t we please start the arrays at 1 where God intended?
I dunno what god[s] have to do with numbers and arrays. But while myArray(VIII) would certainly be geeky enough, there’s a reason why the Roman civilisation disappeared – crashed like an 8-bit processor running Flex or CP/M on January 1, 2000, rather – and the Arabs, after millenia of internal and external fights, massacres and general disarray, are still there. They have the zero, and the Romans dinna have it. Of course, arguing – like some did in the comments – that 0-based [which I favour, if you hadn’t noticed yet] are POLS is a bit disingenuous. See the battles that raged in 2000/2001 regarding when the 21st Century started – people expecting the new century to start on ~0, whereas it starts on ~1. Surprises can smack you in the face – or sour a dinner party – at any corner.
July 21st, 2006 at 8:01 am
I think we can basically say in cases like this. Make a rule, document it clearly (for some reason this is difficult), and STICK with it.
0 or 1? Who cares. Just be consistent. Although aesthetics are such a big part of being human so I guess this debate will never end until robots take over the earth.