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[REBOL] Re: On ordinal and cardinal numbers...

From: joel:neely:fedex at: 7-Jul-2001 15:56

Jeff Kreis wrote:
> Okay, but the important caveat for everyone to remember is > that with 1-based indexing, LENGTH? blk corresponds to the > range of positions that can be picked from, changed, etc. > However, with zero-based indexing, LENGTH? blk refers to 1+ > the range of values pickable, changable. >
No offense, but if I didn't already know what we were talking about, I'd have lots of trouble parsing that description. How about saying it this way: One-origin indices range from 1 to LENGTH? blk. Zero-origin indices range from 0 to (LENGTH? blk) - 1. This really is familiar to anyone who's used 0-origin. The 60 minutes in an hour range from 0 to 59. The 24 hours in a standard 24-hour clock range from 0 to 23.
> So, for example, the following code behaves > differently depending on the base: > > x: [1 2 3] > change at x length? x 0 > > 1-based == [1 2 0] > 0-based == [1 2 3 0] >
We're not talking about changing the behavior of AT, but whether we might have a *new* word ATZ (or AT0 or AT/ZERO). Therefore anyone who wanted to change the last element of X could write any of the following change at x length? x 0 change atz x (length? x) - 1 0 change back tail foo
> This leads to a change of REPEAT as part of a very common > REBOL idiom: > > repeat i length? block [ print [i pick block i ] ] > > Works for 1-based, but without changing both REPEAT and > LENGTH? will break for 0-based (skips the zeroth element and > prints NONE on the final iteration). >
The above fragment of code would still work. Anyone who knew (or had learned) enough to write the 0-origin versions could also write it as repeat i length? block [print [i - 1 pickz block i - 1]] Unless, of course, you're joining with me to extend the list of suggested new words to include REPEATZ, so that one could write it as repeatz i length? block [print [i pickz block i]] The only rule is "Be consistent." Don't mix origins unless you know what you're doing. -jn- --------------------------------------------------------------- There are two types of science: physics and stamp collecting! -- Sir Arthur Eddington joel-dot-neely-at-fedex-dot-com