Roger Hui wrote: > ... The question is, does the choice of a fixed value of 0 for index > origin a hindrance to your work? The question is specifically > addressed to "ordinary domain experts", people with no software > engineering in their background and are not professional > mathematicians.
My formal background is in education, music, theology, and librarianship. I've programmed (self-taught) as a hobby (with a tiny bit of entrepreneurship at one point) and to create tools for myself to support my own productivity since the MITS Altair in the mid-1970s and the first version of Microsoft (Altair) BASIC. I don't remember if it was there at the beginning or came later, but those BASIC's had the ability to specify array origins at either 0 or 1. Personally, I've always felt that a 0-origin was an awkward concept promoted by the fact that computers can only binarily count, say, using 4 bits, from 0 to 15 rather than the standard "human" count of 1 to 16. Subsequently, in using computers (binary machines), I've seen where 0-origins provide certain programming conveniences (but, again, it's because we're working with machines not people.) There are lots of things in life you don't like, but you learn to live with them. To me, 0-origin is one of them. Harvey ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
