On Mon, 6 Oct 2003, Matt W. wrote: > From: "Ross Werner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Ha! "2" is the /third/ number in base ten. > > > > A true geek would never make such a mistake ... > > > > ~ ross > > I think it is interesting that if anyone (who's in the know) starts writing > out consecutive numbers in binary, he will start with 0. However, in base > 10, he will start with 1. The first address/state is 0000 (binary) not > 0001.
"A friend" wants to know why we're so inconsistent with our 0-first/1-first counting methods. For example, if your program counts how many tests have been taken and divides the total score, finding the average, we have to start counting by one. (If we start at zero, we find that dividing by zero is not very pretty.) On the other hand, arrays and memory addressing start at zero. Why can't everything just start with one or the other?! ~ Ross ____________________ BYU Unix Users Group http://uug.byu.edu/ ___________________________________________________________________ List Info: http://uug.byu.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uug-list
