20 December 2013

Useful link: Why array are zero-indexed?

Curiosity can be evil.You sometimes want know ..why?  Why array are zero-indexed? Is it improve my life?No. However ,I was still curious. Thanks to Mike Hoye's weblog  .I know the answer .
" So: the technical reason we started counting arrays at zero is that in the mid-1960′s, you could shave a few cycles off of a program’s compilation time on an IBM 7094. The social reason is that we had to save every cycle we could, because if the job didn’t finish fast it might not finish at all and you never know when you’re getting bumped off the hardware because the President of IBM just called and fuck your thesis, it’s yacht-racing time."Mike Hoye
I recommend to read his amazing article about it:
 http://exple.tive.org/blarg/2013/10/22/citation-needed/

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