She is right, using 0 index for physical stuff is stupid.
this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2024
1483 points (98.5% liked)
Programmer Humor
32715 readers
1465 users here now
Post funny things about programming here! (Or just rant about your favourite programming language.)
Rules:
- Posts must be relevant to programming, programmers, or computer science.
- No NSFW content.
- Jokes must be in good taste. No hate speech, bigotry, etc.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
Your rulers start at 1? That sounds annoying.
Rulers measure cardinal quantities and not ordinal ones. There is no cardinal numbering scheme that starts at 1, all of them "start" at 0. For ordinal numbering schemes, the symbols are arbitrary anyway and you can start with whatever you want. It's equally valid to start with 1, 0, -1, A, or "aardvark". The only benefit to picking 1 as the start is to make it easier to count with your fingers while picking 0 lets you easily convert an ordinal quantity to a cardinal one.
I've seen a lot of rulers that actually don't have a mark at 0 and instead go right to the edge as 0. Typically they are worn down, being made of wood, so the accuracy of the first inch is dubious. To ensure the distance is correct, sliding the ruler down one unit is a good idea. So, my ruler starts at 0 but my measurements start at 1.
That's why decent rulers have a 0 and a margin:
It really depends on what you're measuring. Good luck measuring the distance from a corner if you can't get 0 to touch the end.
Tape measures are almost always designed with this in mind, so you can hook the end over an edge, or butt it up against something and the measurement will be accurate both ways, since the metal end can slide in or out by just the right amount.
since the metal end can slide in or out by just the right amount.
OMG! I genuinely thought all the tape measures I have handled were a little broken.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Your job is to move apples from one bin to another. You pick up the first one and set it in the other bin, and say "zero."?
There's another way to think about it which I actually use. Look in the empty bin and say "zero", then move an apple and say "one".
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(4 replies)
Works for floors!
Not on this side of the pond. We typically don't have a ground floor, that's just the first floor.
i wish the people making buildings around here knew that. some start at floor 3, others at 5. some start at 0. others at 2. every building has its own story. you need to understand the building before you can understand your position in it.
if a building is built into a hillside in the uk and has exits on floors 2 and 5, which would be the ground floor?
load more comments
(2 replies)
Blame the restaurant for having a table identified as zero
Why? It seems exactly as valid to me, and more valid if you like positional numberings of your physical stuff.
You just count the number of times you departed from an item in order, rather than the times you arrived.
load more comments
(1 replies)
And then he texts back 'where are you?' And then she texts back 'the first table' and he replies 'umm I'm here too. But I don't see you' confused she asks him ' table 0p?' And then '01*?' He says 'no, 00.' Releaved she says 'lol I am at table 01' he chuckles 'I am at 00, I'll go find you'
Later they get married and have kids. But relationship collapses and it ruins both of them and they cannot find the heart to love anyone again. Their children grow up broken and struggle through life. Some get arrested end up in prison, all of them repeatedly fall into a series of toxic relationships for the rest of their lives.
load more comments
(3 replies)
In the UK it's called a ground table.
So it was a spelling mistake? They're actually The Knights of The Ground Table!
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(7 replies)
She was a lua girl, he was every other programming language guy. It was not ment to happen.
She liked embeddded apps
And he liked desktop displays
What more can I say?
Don't wanna state the obvious, but it looks like they still ended up staring at each other for the rest of the evening.
They have shown that they still love each other, so hope they can work with their one irreconcilable difference.
I love the idea that they're at two adjacent tables, each one staring at the other wondering why they hate them.
They hate each other because they are intolerant to one another's index choices
It’s for the best
That is why my restaurant will number tables by UUID.
A much better idea than when I tried to organize my restaurant with hashtables.
It was too much for the waitstaff, who had to reindex the floor plan every time they added or removed a plate.
On the plus side, delivering the right food was always O(1).
they were never meant to be together, they would confuse the hell out of each other. Imagine they have two kids and she says pick kid[1] from the school, then what?
I think children go in dictionaries so you can look them to via name (key).
load more comments
(1 replies)
The real punch line is that in a cafe run by programmers, esoteric rules are in full force, but tables 0 and 1 are no where near each other.
maybe she's a lua developer
Hey, if she thinks 1 is 1st index then you ~~dogged~~ dodged a bullet and deserve better.
Happy now all you English majors.
you dogged a bullet
😳
load more comments
(1 replies)
Wouldn't it be nice if documentation used the words index and offset consistently?
The problem is that they both are contextual and can mean any position in a list/array. The starting index or starting offset is generally zero, but could be one, depending on the language used.
load more comments
(5 replies)
load more comments
(3 replies)
I still mess this up for lists in Python...
This would work better as Nth floor of a building
IS THIS Love Advice From the Great Duke of Hell??
(it's a webcomic, I loved the story)
Isn't the guy at the zeroith table?
There is no such thing as "zeroith". Does not matter which numbers you slap on the tables, the one with the lowest number will always be the first. The word "first" has nothing to do with indices, it's just an antonym for "last".
load more comments
(11 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
This thread is a great example of why they don’t like to let (most) software developers talk to the customers.
view more: next ›