python list index - an easy question

[Jussi Piitulainen]

Ben Bacarisse writes:

> BartC writes:
>
>> You need to take your C hat off, I think.
>
> It's a computing hat.  Indexes are best seen as offsets (i.e. as a
> measured distances from some origin or base).  It's a model that grew
> out of machine addressing and assembler address modes many, many
> decades ago -- long before C.  C, being a low-level language,
> obviously borrowed it, but pretty much all the well-thought out
> high-level languages have seen the value in it too, though I'd be
> interested in hearing about counter examples.

Julia, at version 0.5 of the language, is a major counter-example:
1-based, closed ranges. I think they have been much influenced by the
mathematical practice in linear algebra, possibly through another
computing language.

I think there's some work going on to allow other starting points, or at
least 0. Not sure about half-open ranges.

> The main issue -- of using a half open interval for a range -- is
> probably less widely agreed upon, though I think it should be.  EWD is
> correct about this (as about so many things).

Agreed.

(I even use pen and paper, though I don't always remember what I wrote.)