On 2011-05-31 11:10:59 -0400, eles <e...@eles.com> said:
I agree that the issue is not simple (else, there would have been no "war"). I know no other examples where open-right limits are used. I use (intensively) just another language capable of slicing, that is Matlab. It uses the closed-left and closed-right limits and I tend to see it as a winner in the engineering field, precisely because of its ability to manipulate arrays (its older name is MATrix LABoratory and this is exaxtly why I am using it for).
I don't think you can enter this debate without bringing the other war about zero-based indices vs. one-based indices. Matlab first's index number is number one, and I think this fits very naturally with the closed-right limit. In many fields, one-based indices are common because they are easier to reason with. But in computers, where the index is generally an offset from a base address, zero-based is much more prevalent as it better represents what the machine is actually doing. And it follows that open-ended limits on the right are the norm.
-- Michel Fortin michel.for...@michelf.com http://michelf.com/
