Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!bu.edu!m2c!jjmhome!smds!rh From: rh@smds.UUCP (Richard Harter) Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: About the variable 'I' (was Re: long names (was Readability of Ada)) Summary: Hundreds of years of precedent Message-ID: <425@smds.UUCP> Date: 29 Apr 91 04:25:10 GMT References: <3878@ssc-bee.ssc-vax.UUCP> <1991Apr26.034205.27308@netcom.COM> Organization: SMDS Inc., Concord, MA Lines: 19 In article <1991Apr26.034205.27308@netcom.COM>, mrs@netcom.COM (Morgan Schweers) writes: > Greetings, > Can someone confirm (preferably in a post, so my MBX doesn't flood) > the truth/falsity of FORTRAN being the starter of 'I' as a generic loop > variable? FALSE, er, make that false, no 0, no, well anyway, you know what I mean. It's mathematical usage and has been for ages and ages. Letters i,j,k for indices in summation and product formulas, and m and n for ranges. Back in the olden days when computers were used for computing (instead of running microwave ovens and serving as crosses between TV's and typewriters) they were programmed by mathematicians and engineers. They set a trend that has been enshrined in universal habit. -- Richard Harter, Software Maintenance and Development Systems, Inc. Net address: jjmhome!smds!rh Phone: 508-369-7398 US Mail: SMDS Inc., PO Box 555, Concord MA 01742 This sentence no verb. This sentence short. This signature done.