On 01 Apr 2009 01:26:41 GMT, Steven D'Aprano <ste...@remove.this.cybersource.com.au> wrote:
> >Why Python (and other languages) count from zero instead of one, and >why half-open intervals are better than closed intervals: > >http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2008/06/26/why-computer-scientists-count-from-zero/ >http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD08xx/EWD831.html steven, thanks for answering, yes, i saw the second one a little time ago (someone else posted it as well in really cute handwriting version :) and the first time just now, but the examples which both of them give don't seem to me to be that relevant, e.g. the pros don't overcome the cons. imho, although both sides (mathematical vs engineer) adress some points, none of them give the final decisive argument. i understand the math. point of view, but from the practical side it is not good. it goes nicely into his tidy theory of everything, but practical and intuitive it is not. as i said, being an engineer, i tend towards the other side, so this is biased opinion (nobody can be unbiased) but from a practical side it seems unpractical for engineering problems (and to me, the purpose of computers is to help humans to build a better world, not to prove theories - theories are useless if they don't help us in reality. so we should try to adapt computing to real world, not our world to computers). but i just read somewhere that guido who wrote python is a mathem. so that probably had to do with the decision. nevertheless, thank you for the links. you have a nice group here, i always am nicely suprised how people tend to be helpful nice regards lada -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
