 Check out the bookstore at IRBS.com |
|
|
|
|||||
|
||||||
Subject: Re: millenium - 2000 or 2001?
From: Roger M. Derby (derbyrm@XXX.XXX)
Date: Mon Dec 27 1999 - 19:32:10 EST
Geoff Kuenning wrote:
>
> > Those of us who had to really analyze number systems in order to
> > design computers have always recognized that one started counting at
> > zero. (Although there was a misguided bunch who had both negative
> > and positive zeroes in their implementations.)
>
> This is a common misconception among computer programmers who choose
> to be rabidly nerdy. "I write my loops starting at zero, so zero is
> the only place to start counting," they proclaim.
>
> Wrong.
Define "start counting". The first object counted is the one-th, but when you
were set the job of counting, we hope you didn't include some arbitrary offset
so that the first sheep thru the gate was given the number seven.
Roger
http://www.seidata.com/~derbyrm
|