Python Feature Request: Allow changing base of member indices to 1

[Alex Martelli]

Sherm Pendley <spamtrap at dot-app.org> wrote:

> "Paddy" <paddy3118 at googlemail.com> writes:
> 
> > I don't think we should add it to Python
> > because it would make porting VB code easier.
> 
> Great Cthulhu no!
> 
> I chimed in because your first comment regarding Perl implied that it's
> commonplace for Perl programmers to fiddle with the index base. It can
> be done, for historical reasons, but it's far from common.

Reminds me of APL's worst blunder -- "quadIO" (with IO standing for
Index Origin, NOT Input/Output) could be set to 0 or 1, with global
effect.  I worked a lot with APL and mostly loved it (APL2 even more
so), and I'm saddened to read that the ACM wants to disband the APL SIG
for lack of activity (though no doubt it's a reasonable decision, it
badly tickles my nostalgia for years and decades gone) -- but the quadIO
design decision was a truly major design blunder, and made it hell to
integrate APL code from multiple sources.


Alex