Preben Nrager said: > I quoted this from Newcomb: "To avoid the inconvenience thus arising > astronomers measure the years from a zero epoch one year earlier than the > birth of Christ ; that is, they place a year before the year 1, and measure > from its beginning." Is it irrelevant that Newcomb wanted astronomers to > "measure from its [year 0s] beginning"?
Actually I think you'll find that Newcomb was trying to resolve the cardinal/ordinal problem: going N periods takes you to the N+1th period, not the Nth period. In computing terms we'd call this the C versus Fortran issue: do array indices start at 0 or 1. "My compromise of 0.5 was rejected without, I thought, proper consideration." - Stan Kelly-Bootle -- Clive D.W. Feather | If you lie to the compiler, Email: [email protected] | it will get its revenge. Web: http://www.davros.org | - Henry Spencer Mobile: +44 7973 377646 _______________________________________________ LEAPSECS mailing list [email protected] https://pairlist6.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/leapsecs
