Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!ncar!ames!pacbell!att-ih!ihnp4!ihlpf!nevin1 From: nevin1@ihlpf.ATT.COM (00704a-Liber) Newsgroups: comp.lang.modula2 Subject: Re: 0-based/1-based arrays Message-ID: <4089@ihlpf.ATT.COM> Date: 23 Mar 88 01:42:03 GMT References: <7161@sol.ARPA> <2740@mmintl.UUCP> <4343@june.cs.washington.edu> <6276@ames.arpa> <1915@mips.mips.COM> Reply-To: nevin1@ihlpf.UUCP (00704a-Liber,N.J.) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois Lines: 32 In article <1915@mips.mips.COM> uday@mips.COM (Robert Redford) writes: > When someone has zero apples, it means that he has no > apples. If there are three apples on the table, one would start > refering to them as first apple, second apple, third apple. This is assuming, of course, that he wants to put the apples in some kind of ORDER. He arbituarily assigns names to them (ie, first, second, third). He could have just as easily assigned them names like Apple, Apple II, Apple II+, Apple IIe, Apple IIGS, Lisa, MacIntosh, Granny, etc. :-) He is just making up names so he can distinguish them. > If there are 3 memory cells in the computer, one starts refering > to them as zeroth memory cell, first memory cell and second memory > cell. Ah, but memory cells have ADDRESSES; ie, a quantity that can distinguish different memory cells (ex: memory location 0 and memory location 1 need different voltages on the address pins of the chip to access them). I don't know about where you live, but where I live addresses don't start at 1 and go up consecutively. :-) :-) They are given a numbering system so that they can be distinguished and referred to distinctly (do people really talk about the nth memory cell?? :-)). Choosing a system that is related to the physical voltages needed is a good choice, not bad. BTW, what does this have to do with 0/1 based arrays??? :-) :-) -- _ __ NEVIN J. LIBER ..!ihnp4!ihlpf!nevin1 (312) 510-6194 ' ) ) "The secret compartment of my ring I fill / / _ , __o ____ with an Underdog super-energy pill." / (_