Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!dgp.toronto.edu!flaps
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
From: flaps@dgp.toronto.edu (Alan J Rosenthal)
Subject: Re: characters
Message-ID: <1990Sep22.183957.10766@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu>
References: <13680@hydra.gatech.EDU> <2517@idunno.Princeton.EDU> <1990Sep18.162407.15525@zoo.toronto.edu> <1371@ontek.com>
Date: 22 Sep 90 22:39:58 GMT
Lines: 13

mikey@ontek.com (krill o mine) writes:
>Most high school algebra texts do not consider zero a natural number.
>I would venture that you meant whole numbers.

I have NEVER heard a real mathematician say "whole number".

It seems to me that nearly all mathematicians in mathematics departments start
the naturals with one, but many, possibly most, math-like folks in computer
science departments start them with zero.  It doesn't matter as much in
mathematics.

In any case, high school algebra textbooks are certainly not a definitive
reference for mathematics.