Subject: RE: [xsl] One-based indexes in XPath From: "Michael Kay" <mike@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 18:05:03 +0100 |
Because the language was designed for users, not for programmers, and users still have this old-fashioned habit of referring to the first chapter in a book as Chapter One. (Though I did once hear Dijkstra refer to the fourth slide in someone's presentation as the third.) (I fully agree that when handling tables, or subscripting into strings, zero-based addressing would often be much more convenient. There are arguments both ways, and as always, I can't tell you what the actual history of the decision was; I can only post-rationalize it.) Michael Kay http://www.saxonica.com/ > -----Original Message----- > From: Justin Johansson [mailto:procode@xxxxxxxxxxx] > Sent: 20 May 2008 18:15 > To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > Subject: [xsl] One-based indexes in XPath > > Trusting this question is relevant to the XSL List. > > Would someone please give me advice as to why "1-based" > indexes are used in XPath, such as para[1] instead of para[0] > for the first para item/element? > > Why does the spec for XPath (and its/XQuery operator/function > library) go against the norm for modern programming languages > in which zero is the base for array-like collections? > > The reason for my question is to do with reconciling XPath > and XSLT with an implementation in Javascript in which zero > is the base index for arrays. > My users may well be perplexed by having to decide whether an > index number is in XPath/XSLT-world or Javascript-world. > > Thanks for comments, > > Justin Johansson
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