Python "why" questions

Benjamin Kaplan benjamin.kaplan at case.edu
Sun Aug 8 13:51:10 EDT 2010


On Sun, Aug 8, 2010 at 10:24 AM, Default User <hunguponcontent at gmail.com> wrote:
> Not to prolong a good "food fight", but IIRC, many years ago in QBasic,
> one could choose
>
> OPTION BASE 0
>
> or
>
> OPTION BASE 1
>
> to make arrays start with element [0] or element [1], respectively.  Could
> such a feature be added to Python without significantly bloating the
> interpreter?
>
> Then, if starting with [0] "works for you", nothing really changes.  And if
> starting with [1] "works for you", then you are not made to feel like a
> second-class citizen, and about as welcome as a dimwit at the Mensa
> meeting.
>
> Isn't Python supposed to be simple and accessible, and therefore fun?
>

Python is also about being readable and consistent. It's going to get
really confusing if half the files use 1-based lists and the other
half use 0-based. Is it really that hard to get used to indices
running from 0 to length-1? Also, good luck getting through life
without running into C, C++, C#, Visual Basic, F#, Java, Ruby, Perl,
Lisp, or OCaml code. Along with all the languages that use 0-based
arrays.



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