It is not a count. It is a 0 origin. The idea is not to confuse it with 
counting which only goes up from one while vectors include 0 and negative and 
imaginary numbers.

Donna
[email protected]


On Dec 24, 2013, at 6:09 AM, "R.E. Boss" <[email protected]> wrote:

>> From: [email protected] [mailto:programming-
>> [email protected]] On Behalf Of Raul Miller
>> Subject: Re: [Jprogramming] A little question
>> 
>> I'd like to note an oddity about numbers and their words:
>> 
>> 0 First
>> 1 Second
>> 2 Third
>> 3 Fourth
> (...)
> 
> Well, as you know, the oddity relates to the strange way of numbering used
> in programming (and J). 
> It's as odd as teaching children to count 1,2,... and then when they start
> programming, we tell them: no it should be 0,1,2,...
> (Comparable with teaching little children to talk and when they do, tell
> them to shut up.)
> 
> I have never read any good reason why programmers should count starting by
> 0. 
> And one of the good reasons _not_ to do that in J particular, is that
> counting from the last one is done by _1,  _2, ...
> I don't want to reopen this old discussion, but it is peculiar you call it
> an oddity.
> 
> 
> R.E. Boss
> 
> (Add your info to http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/Community/Demographics )
> 
> 
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