编程与软件工程cs.utexas.edu编辑精选
为什么编号应从零开始（1982）
Why numbering should start at zero (1982)
2015 — 2020，它一次次回到首页
黑点是上首页（≥ 50 分）的那次投稿，空心点是没冲上去的投稿，点越大分数越高。
导读
这是 Dijkstra 1982 年的手写备忘录 EWD831，论证序列编号应从 0 开始：用半开区间 [a,b) 表示范围可以避免差一错误，并让空序列和子序列的表示更自然。这篇短文至今仍是关于 0 起始索引最常被引用的经典论述。
为什么经久不衰：它把一个看似琐碎的约定问题讲成了关于表达清晰性的经典论证，每次编程语言设计争论索引起点时都会被重新翻出来。
HN 评论精选
Python 采纳了半开区间约定，但为递减序列补了 reversed() 作为补救。
Python 遵循了 Dijkstra 推荐的约定，总体效果不错，唯独递减序列的情况晦涩易错，所以我们加了 reversed() 来翻转迭代方向。不必再写 range(n-1, -1, -1)，可以写 reversed(range(n))。
raymondh查看英文原文
Python follows convention the first convention, just as Dijkstra recommends. Mostly this worked-out well except for the case of descending sequences. With half-open intervals, that case proved to be cryptic and error-prone, so we added reversed() to flip the direction of iteration. That allowed people to easily bridge from the comfortable and common case of looping forwards. Instead of range(n-1, -1, -1) we can write reversed(range(n)).
0 起始索引与模运算天然契合，在需要索引算术的场景下代码更简洁。
很多人对此有强烈观点：一派认为 0 起始索引是唯一合逻辑的方式，另一派觉得没什么大不了、偏好符合日常数数习惯的 1。我猜第一类人做过需要在索引上做算术的底层编程。比如把 "abc" 重复填充到长度 10，0 起始时写 b[i]=a[i%3] 即可，1 起始则要写 b[i]=a[(i-1)%3+1]，索引要平移两次。因为模运算需要 0 才能构成环，所以在索引起点真正造成差异的场合，0 起始通常让代码更简洁。
0-_-0查看英文原文
Lots of people have a strong opinion on this: Ones that say that 0-based indexing is the only logical way of things, and ones that don't see what the fuss is about and prefer 1 because that's how we count objects. I suspect the people in the first category did some low level programming that needed to do arithmetic on indices. For example, let's say you want to take a string "abc" and repeat it until the length is 10, getting "abcabcabca". Assuming some Python-like language you would start with: a = "abc" b = [" "]*10 With 0-based indexing you would do: for i in range(0,10): b[i]=a[i%3] In a 1-based language that becomes: for i in range(1,11): b[i]=a[(i-1)%3+1] So you need to shift the index twice. This is because modulo arithmetic needs 0 to form a ring. As a result, in situations where the difference between 0 and 1 based indexing makes a difference it's ususally 0-based indexing that leads to simpler code.
提供多种区间写法反而制造差一错误；顺带吐槽 Pascal 不允许编译期算术。
取决于你是在度量还是在计数。文章提到 Mesa 的区间语法，给了程序员所有可能的选项：[1..100]、(0..101)、[1..101) 等都表示同一个区间。这是个坏主意，是制造差一错误的绝佳方式。那个年代的另一个坏主意是 Wirth 坚持 Pascal 不允许编译期算术，比如定义了 tabsize=100 后，不能写 array [0..tabsize-1]，必须为 tabsize-1 单独定义一个具名常量。
Animats查看英文原文
Depends on whether you're measuring or counting. The article mentions Mesa's interval syntax, which gave programmers all the possible options: [1..100] (0 .. 101) [1 .. 101) [1 .. 101) were all the same interval, 1 to 100 inclusive. Bad idea. Great way to get off-by-one errors. Another bad idea from that era - Wirth's insistence that you shouldn't be allowed compile-time arithmetic in Pascal. Like. const tabsize = 100; var tab: array [0..tabsize-1] of integer; { NOT ALLOWED } No, you had to have a separate named constant for "tabsize-1", and it couldn't be initialized as "tabsize-1", either.
认同结论但批评 Dijkstra 的傲慢文风；认为取模才是最强论据，而 L[2] 指第三个元素确实反直觉。
Dijkstra 固然才华横溢，我也知道他很多语气是半开玩笑的，但有时他的文字实在刻薄、自负到令人恼火：在陈述了一系列他个人觉得"好"或"自然"的观点后，就宣称存在一种"最合理"的方式，其他人都在犯傻。我同意从 0 编号，但他没提到与取模运算配合得多么好，我认为那才是最有说服力的理由。而让 L[2] 表示数组第三个元素确实极其反直觉，会带来无数错误——CS 学生起初都不喜欢它，是被吓人的红色报错和讲师经年累月地驯化后才接受的。
wfo查看英文原文
Dijkstra is of course brilliant and I recognize much of his tone is tongue in cheek and irreverant but sometimes I find his writing so nasty, pompous and arrogant that it becomes irritating; claiming, after a series of opinions about what he personally finds "nice" or "natural" that there is a "most sensible" way of doing things and that everyone else is being ridiculous. A tamer one of his offenses but still unpleasant. I agree on the numbering but many people don't. He doesn't mention how nicely it works with the modulo operator, which is I think the most compelling reason. But having L[2] be the third index in an array is horribly counterintuitive and leads to countless mistakes. CS students when they begin do not like it, it is not natural. It is beaten into them by scary red error messages and instructors over months and years until they finally accept it.
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