On 08/17/2010 10:15 PM, Russ P. wrote:
On Aug 7, 5:54 am, "D'Arcy J.M. Cain"<da...@druid.net> wrote:
Would said beginner also be surprised that a newborn baby is zero years
old or would it be more natural to call them a one year old? Zero
based counting is perfectly natural.
You're confusing continuous and discrete variables. Time is a
continuous variable, but a list index is discrete.
Take a look at any numbered list, such as the top ten football teams
or the top ten software companies. Have you ever seen such a list
start with zero? If so, where? I sure haven't.
When I studied linear algebra way back, vector and matrix indices also
always started with one, and I assume they still do.
The convention of starting with zero may have had some slight
performance advantage in the early days of computing, but the huge
potential for error that it introduced made it a poor choice in the
long run, at least for high-level languages.
I have to agree, there's innumerable number of examples where sequential
number of an item in a series is counted starting with one. Second loaf
of bread; third day of vacation, first cup of tea today, first gray
hair, 50th anniversary, 2nd century AD, and approximately a gazillion
other examples.
Contrast this with _one_ example that was repeated in this thread of
there being ground floor, 1st floor, 2nd, and so on. However! Consider
that ground floor is kind of different from the other floors. It's the
floor that's not built up over ground, but is already there -- in case
of the most primitive dwelling, you can put some sawdust over the
ground, put a few boards overhead and it's a "home", although probably
not a "house". But does it really have what can be officially called a
"floor"?
On a more practical angle, ground floors usually have the lobby,
receptionists, storefronts and stores, etc; while 1st floor and up are
business/residential.
I think different numbering from pretty much all other things out there
gives you a hint that the ground floor is a different animal.
-andrei
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