From: Chad Perrin <perrin@...>
Date: 2007-07-20T07:31:13+09:00
Subject: Re: The Pebble in the Ruby Shoe

On Fri, Jul 20, 2007 at 03:46:11AM +0900, Steven Lumos wrote:
> Chad Perrin <perrin@apotheon.com> writes:
> >
> > As you say, the zero-based array is a practical matter related to the
> > work of programming (as well as being related to the applicability of set
> > theory to language design), and not a convenience for those wacky
> > mathematicians with their nonstandard way of counting (kind of a strange
> > claim to make).  In contrast with your implication that this is somehow a
> > *bad* practical decision, however, it's actually the case that, by and
> > large, the benefits for natural sequential operations in programming and
> > the in-built compatibility of zero-based arrays with certain concepts of
> > set theory add up to a strikingly practical, and quite positive, reason
> > for zero-based arrays.
> 
> Not only did I not mean to imply that, but I'm not sure I can even
> parse "bad practical decision".  If I knew the evidence I had implied
> in support of my implied claim then maybe I could. :-)
> 
> But I even explicitly said that "It's a good and safe decision
> supported by decades of computing convention and habit..."

That would be why I used terms like "seem" and so on in that email -- I
wasn't 100% certain of your intent, based on what you said.


> 
> > In other words, your premises are largely correct, but they do not lead
> > to the conclusions you seem to suggest.
> 
> I'm just sick of hearing that Ruby does such and such because
> mathematicians like it.

Fair enough.  I agree with you on that score, actually -- that it gets
kind of old seeing people try to equate everything in computer science
with the will of mathematicians.  That's the sort of thinking that leads
to CS students wasting time on trigonometry when they could be spending
it on something useful to computer science, like linear algebra.

-- 
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
Larry Wall: "A script is what you give the actors.  A program is what you
give the audience."