Re: 1-based indexing in Lua

[Gavin Wraith <gavin@...>]

In message <20180403153946.GA19764@arraial.inf.puc-rio.br>
          Roberto Ierusalimschy <roberto@inf.puc-rio.br> wrote:

>> Written before I was born, EWD831 (http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD08xx/EWD831.html)
>> describes why 0 based ranges are superior better than I can. It has nothing to do with
>> programming languages and everything to do with math.

EWD was a genius of many parts, a belle-lettrist with a great sense of humour, and not above
expressing himself more pungently than present literal-minded fashions are comfortable
with.

> As a more concrete example, the floor division is way superior than the
> round-to-zero division used by C and copied by many languages. But I
> don't hear people whining all the time about division in those languages.

I am a mathematician, and I admit to having muttered at times - but
certainly not whined. My chief complaint was that programmers tended to see
maths through the eyes of the engineer rather than of the number theorist.
IEEE format? Who is for lazy streams of unitary integer 2x2 matrices
instead?

Sorry, I am bored with the indexing from zero v. one, offset v. cardinal business.
I hope this sentiment offends none.
--
Gavin Wraith (gavin@wra1th.plus.com)
Home page: http://www.wra1th.plus.com/