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From: csnjr@its63b.ed.ac.uk (Nick Rothwell)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.modula2,comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: 0-based/1-based arrays
Message-ID: <1049@its63b.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 7 Mar 88 13:49:42 GMT
References: <7161@sol.ARPA> <2740@mmintl.UUCP> <4343@june.cs.washington.edu> <2851@haddock.ISC.COM> <726@sandino.quintus.
Reply-To: nick%ed.lfcs@uk.ac.ucl.cs.nss (Nick Rothwell)
Organization: LFCS, University of Edinburgh
Lines: 16

In article <726@sandino.quintus.UUCP> pds@quintus.UUCP (Peter Schachte) writes:
>As someone said, one-based arrays often seem more natural.  I want to
>store 10 of these things.  So I allocate a ten element array.  Now,
>quick, which is the last element?  Number NINE?  Huh?

Yes. 'fraid so! The "9" popped into my head straight away.
I'm an ML hacker. I'm used to traversing lists. If I have a list of 10
elements, I have to take its tail 9 times. If I want the first element,
I do 0 operations. So, I think from 0 upwards...
-- 
Nick Rothwell,	Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science, Edinburgh.
		nick%lfcs.ed.ac.uk@nss.cs.ucl.ac.uk
		<Atlantic Ocean>!mcvax!ukc!lfcs!nick
~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~
...while the builders of the cages sleep with bullets bars and stone,
they do not see your road to freedom that you build with flesh and bone.