On Nov 15, 12:11 pm, Mark Dickinson <dicki...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Nov 15, 6:50 pm, a...@pythoncraft.com (Aahz) wrote: > > > Anyone remember or know why Python slices function like half-open > > intervals? I find it incredibly convenient myself, but an acquaintance > > familiar with other programming languages thinks it's bizarre and I'm > > wondering how it happened. > > Sounds like an excuse to post this Dijkstra link: > > http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/ewd08xx/EWD831.PDF >
That is really good stuff! Like Aahz I have Python's slicing mechanism (and zero-based indexing) burnt into my brain, but I never had a good way to explain why it makes sense, other than just an intuitive notion that it works for me. It is interesting how the link actually seems to explain zero-based indexing as a consequence of the slicing approach, not a cause. I always understood zero-based indexing as a relic of memory management, which was fine, but I guess the reasons go deeper than that. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
