Python "why" questions

[Bartc]

"D'Arcy J.M. Cain" <darcy at druid.net> wrote in message 
news:mailman.1735.1281185722.1673.python-list at python.org...
> On Sat, 07 Aug 2010 13:48:32 +0200
> News123 <news1234 at free.fr> wrote:
>> It makes sense in assembly language and even in many byte code languages.
>> It makes sense if you look at the internal representation of unsigned
>> numbers (which might become an index)
>>
>> For a complete beginner common sense dictates differently and there
>> might be confusion why the second element in a list has index 1.
>
> Would said beginner also be surprised that a newborn baby is zero years
> old or would it be more natural to call them a one year old?  Zero
> based counting is perfectly natural.

Depends whether you are counting (discrete) things, or measuring them (over 
a continuous range).

You would start counting at 1, but start measuring from 0.

-- 
Bartc