zeroth /zee'rohth/ adj.
First. Among software designers,
comes from C's and LISP's 0-based indexing of arrays. Hardware
people also tend to start counting at 0 instead of 1; this is
natural since, e.g., the 256 states of 8 bits correspond to the
binary numbers 0, 1, ..., 255 and the digital devices known as
`counters' count in this way.
Hackers and computer scientists often like to call the first
chapter of a publication `Chapter 0', especially if it is of an
introductory nature (one of the classic instances was in the First
Edition of K&R). In recent years this trait has also been
observed among many pure mathematicians (who have an independent
tradition of numbering from 0). Zero-based numbering tends to
reduce fencepost errors, though it cannot eliminate them
entirely.
First. Among software designers,
comes from C's and LISP's 0-based indexing of arrays. Hardware
people also tend to start counting at 0 instead of 1; this is
natural since, e.g., the 256 states of 8 bits correspond to the
binary numbers 0, 1, ..., 255 and the digital devices known as
`counters' count in this way.
Hackers and computer scientists often like to call the first
chapter of a publication `Chapter 0', especially if it is of an
introductory nature (one of the classic instances was in the First
Edition of K&R). In recent years this trait has also been
observed among many pure mathematicians (who have an independent
tradition of numbering from 0). Zero-based numbering tends to
reduce fencepost errors, though it cannot eliminate them
entirely.
Related:
- zeroth: /zee'rohth/ adj. First. Among software designers,
comes from C's and LISP's 0-based indexing of arrays... - bit-paired keyboard n.,obs.
(alt. `bit-shift
keyboard') A non-standard keyboard layout that seems to have
originated with the Teletype ASR-33 and remained common for several
years on early computer equipment.
The ASR-33 was a mechanical device (see EOU), so... - vaxocentrism /vak`soh-sen'trizm/ n.
[analogy with
`ethnocentrism'] A notional disease said to afflict C programmers
who persist in coding according to certain assumptions that are
valid (esp.
under Unix) on VAXen but false elsewhere. Among ... - one-liner wars n.
A game popular among hackers who code in
the language APL (see write-only language and line noi
and/or useful routine in one line of operators chosen from APL's
exceedingly hairy primitive set.
A similar amusement was practiced among TECO hackers... - obi-wan error: /oh'bee-won` er'*r/ [RPI, from `off-by-one' and
the Obi-Wan Kenobi character in "Star Wars"] n.
A loop of some sort in which the index is off by... - bit n.
[from the mainstream meaning and `Binary digIT']
1.
[techspeak] The unit of information; the amount of... - off-by-one error: n. Exceedingly common error induced in many
ways,
such as by starting at 0 when you should have started... - toggle: vt. To change a {bit} from whatever state it is in to the
other state;
to change from 1 to 0 or from 0 to 1. This comes from... - INTERCAL /in't*r-kal/ n.
[said by the authors to stand
for `Compiler Language With No Pronounceable Acronym'] A computer
language designed by Don Woods and James Lyons in 1972.
INTERCAL is purposely different from all other computer...
