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0 pointsModernMech4y ago0 comments

Indeed, and if you add up all the users of 1-based languages (Fortran, Matlab, R, Excel, etc.) and 0-based languages (C, C++, Java, Python, etc.), I think you’ll find that the 1-based languages have vastly more programmers.

Going by popularity, 1-based indexing is the established convention.

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6 comments · 2 top-level

bzxcvbn4y ago· 2 in thread

> I think you’ll find that the 1-based languages have vastly more programmers.

Any shred of evidence for that? Listing four languages for each won't cut it.

ModernMechOP4y ago

Excel alone has more users than all other languages combined, so it's not even close.

anothernewdude4y ago

And how many of those users index anything? Heck given the languages you'd write macros for excel, they really screwed up by picking 1-based.

goatlover4y ago· 2 in thread

Yes, but not so much in scientific computing, where scientists and mathematicians do a lot of the coding.

kgwgk4y ago

Because 1-based languages like Fortran, Matlab, R or Mathematica are less used in scientfic computing than elsewhere?

goatlover4y ago

More used in scientific computing, which was my point, because only programmers think of indexing based on offset instead of the first positive integer. Nobody outside of programming in C/Unix inspired languages starts counting at 0.

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