Programmer Humor

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Off by one solitude (fed.dyne.org)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That's because you use English, a language where ordinals traditionally begin at one.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (2 children)

So, based on

Every programmer knows that 'A' in ['A', 'B', 'C', 'D'] would be the 0th item; the first item is 'B'

You're saying I can't be a programmer because I speak English?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

No, what I said is true if you use zero-based numbering. But when communicating with others in English, the label "first" refers to the element with the smallest index. In zero-based numbering, the label "zeroth" refers to the element with the lowest index. It's just not the default in English, but you can definitely use zero-based numbering in English if you're willing to edit the configuration files.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Calling index zero the first is correct, but risks misunderstandings such as in the op comic

That is why many call index zero the zeroth index