[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Terry Hancock wrote:
<snip>
So I like Python's slicing because it "bites *less*" than intervals
in C or Fortran.
I disagree. Programming languages should not needlessly surprise
people, and a newbie to Python probably expects that x[1:3] =
[x[1],x[2],x[3]] . Array-oriented languages, such as Fortran 90/95,
Matlab/Octave/Scilab, and S-Plus/R do not follow the Python convention,
and I don't know of Fortran or R programmers who complain (don't follow
Matlab enough to say). There are Python programmers, such as the OP and
me, who don't like the Python convention. What languages besides Python
use the Python slicing convention?
The principle of least surprise is all very well, but "needless surprise
of newbies" is a dangerous criterion to adopt for programming language
design and following it consistently would lead to a mess like Visual
Basic, which grew by accretion until Microsoft realized it was no longer
tenable and broke backward compatibility.
Along the same lines, I think the REQUIREMENT that x[0] rather than
x[1] be the first element of list x is a mistake. At least the
programmer should have a choice, as in Fortran or VBA. In C starting at
0 may be justified because of the connection between array subscripting
and pointer arithmetic, but Python is a higher-level language where
such considerations are less relevant.
But Pythonicity required that there should be one obvious way to do
something. How obvious is having two ways? Then when you read code you
would continually be asking yourself "is this a one-based or a
zero-based structure?", which is not a profitable use of time.
regards
Steve
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