On 2002-10-28 at 16:54:26, Dan Sugalski wrote: > >The post that started this thread was a complaint about > >leading 0 meaning octal - which is counterintuitive to everyone the > >first time they come across it in C or Perl or Java or wherever. > > That's not entirely true. Granted the set of the people for whom a > leading 0 instinctively means octal is not that big (and getting > smaller due to retirement and death from old age :) but it was > meaningful at one time. No, read what I said again. I guarantee that the *first* time each of these supposed old codgers came across the leading 0 used for octal - in whatever context in whatever decade that might have been - it was counterintuitive, since it runs against what we're taught in mathematics from grade school on. :)
-- Mark REED | CNN Internet Technology 1 CNN Center Rm SW0831G | [EMAIL PROTECTED] Atlanta, GA 30348 USA | +1 404 827 4754
