[Jprogramming] index origin 0

Sun Jul 25 07:26:50 HKT 2010

> By the way, the mention of Edsgar Dijkstra in
> connection with J/APL is rather ironic.  He was
> a rabid opponent of APL and I was told that he
> was heard at in international conference that
> APL would never be used in Holland while he was
> around to stop it.

I read the last bit in a paper by Alan Perlis.
As I remember it, Dijkstra, Perlis, and xyz
sat side-by-side during a presentation by Ken Iverson. 
(Possibly http://www.jsoftware.com/papers/FPL.htm .)
At one point Dijkstra reached over and said to xyz, 
while I am around APL would never be used 
in Holland, whence xyz responded that while 
_he_ was around APL would never be used 
in country abc. (I can not remember xyz and abc.)
----- Original Message -----
From: neville holmes <holmeswn at yahoo.com.au>
Date: Saturday, July 24, 2010 15:52
Subject: Re: [Jprogramming] index origin 0
To: Programming forum <programming at jsoftware.com>
> I haven't done any serious programming since before
> "software engineering" started promoting programmers
> in their own eyes, and I've never been a professional
> mathematician.  Do I qualify ?
>> In any case I would make two comments.
>> I taught J for a decade or more and can't recall any
> problems with fixed origin 0 either in teaching or
> in student project work.  On the contrary, I recall
> several instances of students exclaiming at how
> natural/useful/surprising it was.
>> Index origin 1 was responsible for world-wide
> celebration of the turn of the millennium one year
> early, which rather spoilt it for those of a numeric
> bent.
>> By the way, the mention of Edsgar Dijkstra in
> connection with J/APL is rather ironic.  He was
> a rabid opponent of APL and I was told that he
> was heard at in international conference that
> APL would never be used in Holland while he was
> around to stop it.
>> Neville Holmes, P.O. Box 2412, Bakery Hill 3354, Victoria