Re: yet another another wish list

From: Chris Burrows (cfbsoftware_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 10/14/03 

Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2003 13:08:14 +0930

"Andrew Rybenkov" <arybenkov@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:3f8b5c84@newsgroups.borland.com...
> > Unfortunately for you
>
> Why it is personally for me?
>

Because your enhancement request implied that you had an interest in non
zero-based arrays.

> > the software language world is moving towards zero-based arrays.
>
> Isn' t it a little exaggeration?
>

AFAIK, the most recent computer language developments that I am aware of:
VB.NET, C# and Oberon only support zero-based arrays

> > New programmers who only know zero-based arrays
>
> Then they are not new _programmers_. Newbies, rookies, lamers, whoever,
but
> not programmers. Without studying, say, Wirth, Dijkstra, Hoar, Knuth he is
not a programmer,
> - at most, coder.
>

By new programmers, I mean programmers whose first introduction to
programming is via one of the above languages. As you mentioned Wirth you
might be interested to know that he had this to say about array indices:

'From Modula-2 to Oberon' - Software Practice and Experience Volume 18, No.
7 July 1988:

"The notion of a definable index type of arrays has also been abandoned: All
indices are by default integers. Furthermore, the lower bound is fixed to 0;
array declarations specify a number of elements (length) rather than a pair
of bounds. This break with a long standing tradition since Algol 60 clearly
demonstrates the principle of eliminating the inessential. The specification
of an arbitrary lower bound hardly provides any additional expressive power.
It represents a rather limited kind of mapping of indices which introduces a
hidden computational effort that is incommensurate with the supposed gain in
convenience. This effort is particularly heavy in connection with bound
checking and with dynamic arrays."

Chris Burrows
CFB Software
http://www.cfbsoftware.com

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Question
    ... Structures, like arrays, must have at least one member. ... Again, I'll alert the media. ... competent programmers put an address of the ... That's about as meaningful as the claim that incompetent walkers wear ...
    (comp.lang.c)
  • Re: Answer to why low and high are bad !
    ... Skybuck Flying wrote: ... I know us programmers have to get used to that. ... >>And by all means if you want to '0' base your arrays you are free to do ... >>Jim P. ...
    (alt.comp.lang.borland-delphi)
  • Re: Fortran bashing in the MATLAB newsgroup
    ... guys there were either no real programmers and just forced by their ... the image of C pointers and did not really understand the Fortran logic ... Python, Matlab, R, and I'm sure many other "scripting" languages let ... one return arrays from a function. ...
    (comp.lang.fortran)
  • Re: What will many cores mean to future Windows releases?
    ... most gpf's occur in end user programs, not in drivers. ... Moreover, you don't even need managed code and VM for that, even in Delphi you can turn on range checking so you won't violate ranges when using arrays. ... I think inexperienced programmers should be kept as far away from C++ as possible. ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)
  • Re: Arrays sharing memory?
    ... confusions caused by implicit double precision. ... Also, if you are mixing arrays with lower bounds of 0 and 1, it is easy ... referencing an element 0 when the lower bound is 1 also counts ... changed to 4 within subroutine) and ncompg are ...
    (comp.lang.fortran)