From: Markus <markus@...>
Date: 2004-09-21T23:51:53+09:00
Subject: Re: Array#index block and rdetect

On Tue, 21 Sep 2004, Yukihiro Matsumoto wrote:
> 
> > By the way, do you agree with the
> > word 'counter'?  It's kinda burden for me, non English speaker, to
> > tell the word nuance.

> On Tue, 2004-09-21 at 04:09, David A. Black wrote:
> I think it's OK.  "counter" is very similar to an expression like:
> "maintaining a counter in a loop".  It also has a "dumb" sound (in a
> good way :-) that keeps it separate from index and key.  (Index and
> key both suggest a direct lookup, whereas counter suggests an external
> numbering which could apply to a non-lookup enumerable as well as a
> lookup enumerable.)  

To put a slightly finer point on it: in common usage, a "counter" is
something you are arbitrarily assigned (like the numeric flag some
eating establishments hand out for you to claim your food, or a piece in
a board game); it is associated with you, but there is no other
significance.  

An index, strictly speaking (strict vernacular?  yikes!) is a part of a
collection of associations between objects and their indices, and as
such 1) it is "maintained" and not arbitrary and 2) it has additional
significance, generally (e.g. in a building index, or a book index)
telling you how to find the object in an ordered collection (e.g. of
floors, or of pages).

-- MarkusQ