2014-04-26 10:52:28 -04:00
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zeroth
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2014-04-26 11:54:15 -04:00
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/zeerohth/ , adj. First. Among software designers, comes from C's and LISP's
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0-based indexing of arrays. Hardware people also tend to start counting at 0
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instead of 1; this is natural since, e.g., the 256 states of 8 bits
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correspond to the binary numbers 0, 1,. .., 255 and the digital devices
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known as counters count in this way. Hackers and computer scientists often
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like to call the first chapter of a publication Chapter 0 , especially if it
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is of an introductory nature (one of the classic instances was in the First
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Edition of K R ). In recent years this trait has also been observed among
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many pure mathematicians (who have an independent tradition of numbering
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from 0). Zero-based numbering tends to reduce fencepost error s, though it
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cannot eliminate them entirely.
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