Why VB is popular in America!

[CPallini]

Romans didn't know 0 as well multithreading, I believe.

If the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler. -- Alfonso the Wise, 13th Century King of Castile.
This is going on my arrogant assumptions. You may have a superb reason why I'm completely wrong. -- Iain Clarke
[My articles]

[Nish Nishant]

Slacker007 wrote:

if you are on the ground floor, isn't that floor 1? and the floor above you would be floor 2?

In the US, yes. In the UK, India, Australia that'd be floor-0 and the floor above is floor-1.

Slacker007 wrote:

Then again, I'm just a silly American who started off programming with VB.

And here I am, an Indian origin dude living in America (also started with Basic, GWBASIC though not VB) wondering how you can substract 3 from 2. What is all this negative integer stuff anyway? I don't get it. :-D

Regards, Nish

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My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com

[Nish Nishant]

CPallini wrote:

Romans didn't know 0 as well multithreading, I believe.

:laugh:

Regards, Nish

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My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com

[Lost User]

Bert Mitton wrote:

just to be obstinate.

You typical American. :-)

[clientSurfer]

In Russia, array indexes you!

"... having only that moment finished a vigorous game of Wiff-Waff and eaten a tartiflet." - Henry Minute  "...who gives a tinker's cuss?" - Dalek Dave

[mikemar]

I don't get your point. VB.NET is base zero only. Classic VB used base zero by default although you could set an option to make it base one. I've always thought base zero was stupid for any language that doesn't make pointers and arrays synonamous. Personally though I'd like to see most languages let you pick the base so this argument is ended and because there are occasional times when numbers other than zero or 1 would be handy. In fact most languages before C and a few that came after that weren't influenced by C had this feature but this is one area that computer science has gone backwards IMHO due mostly to the influence of C.

[Chris Maunder]

I'm passing this on to all my mates back home :D

cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP

[Nish Nishant]

mikemarquard wrote:

I don't get your point. VB.NET is base zero only. Classic VB used base zero by default although you could set an option to make it base one

Okay, the original post was meant as humor (hence the joke icon). That said, it's also a CodeProject meme from a few years ago where some of us (mostly John, CG and myself) would joke about C/C++ guys 0-indexing in real life vs VB guys who'd use 1-based indexing. Dim a as int(10) means a 11-item array indexed from 0 to 10. int a[10] means a 10-item array indexed from 0 to 9. So typically Basic devs would just treat it as a 10-item collection indexed from 1 to 10 (ignoring the 0th element).

Regards, Nish

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My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com

[PIEBALDconsult]

mikemarquard wrote:

let you pick the base

Untested:

public partial class Array<T>
{
protected T[] array ;

public Array
(
  int BaseIndex
,
  int Capacity
)
{
  this.BaseIndex = BaseIndex ;

  this.array = new T \[ Capacity \] ;

  return ;
}

public virtual int BaseIndex { get ; private set ; }

public virtual int Capacity 
{
  get
  {
    return ( this.array.Length ) ;
  }
}

public virtual T
this
\[
  int Index
\]
{
  get
  {
    return ( this.array \[ Index + this.BaseIndex \] ) ;
  }

  set
  {
    this.array \[ Index + this.BaseIndex \]  = value ;

    return ;
  }
}

}

[BobJanova]

What I remember of US hotels is that they often number 'L, 2, 3 ...'.

[BobJanova]

What is floor overrun? Yes we have multi-storey buildings. What kind of country do you think it is :p

[BobJanova]

It wouldn't normally be 'floor 0', it would be 'the ground floor' (or G in lifts and stairwells and things where they label it). I don't see how that makes less sense than being on 'the garage floor' ...

[BobJanova]

Should be Index - BaseIndex, I think. And it should have either Length or Count to fit with array/collection convention. But not bad for a lounge post ;)

[ii_noname_ii]

Huh?! Should I be worried about american predator drones dropping bombs to liberate me from the tyranny of C languages? *waves a white flag with VB on it*

[Fabio Franco]

And some Brazilians

"To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems" - Homer Simpson

[StarNamer work]

Of course, the really ridiculous thing is that VB accepts the syntax

Dim myArray(0 to 10) As Double

but produces the error Array lower bounds can be only '0' if you try to use a different value for the lower bound. Plus, of course, the function LBound(array) exists to determine an array's lower bound (which must be zero!). I've also thought this was a backward step, since it would would make so much more sense to have the compiler/runtime keep track the base offsets of arrays instead of forcing the programmer to do it.

[MSBassSinger]

I don't get your point. VB uses zero based indices. VB6 had the flexibility to allow you to define what the number was the initial index in an array is - perhaps that is what is confusing you. Also, VB was very popular in Europe. You are right that VB is an American creation - as are most good things. :) Americans (from the traditional American culture) do focus on getting the job done with excellence in the shortest time possible. VB was created to do that, and certainly allowed that level of productivity. Even to this day, I prefer VB.NET to C#, although I've spent over 10 years developing in C#. Unfortunately, many Americans have adopted a neo-European culture, and programmers I know liek that do prefer C/C++/Java to VB, even though it is less productive.

[agolddog]

One of the things Australia certainly has going for it is understanding the proper meaning of VB: http://www.vb.com.au/[^]

[Nish Nishant]

True :-D

Regards, Nish

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My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com

[Nish Nishant]

MSBassSinger wrote:

I don't get your point. VB uses zero based indices.   VB6 had the flexibility to allow you to define what the number was the initial index in an array is - perhaps that is what is confusing you.

Okay, the original post was meant as humor (hence the joke icon). That said, it's also a CodeProject meme from a few years ago where some of us (mostly John, CG and myself) would joke about C/C++ guys 0-indexing in real life vs VB guys who'd use 1-based indexing. By default, Dim a as int(10) means a 11-item array indexed from 0 to 10. int a[10] means a 10-item array indexed from 0 to 9. So typically Basic devs would just treat it as a 10-item collection indexed from 1 to 10 (ignoring the 0th element).

MSBassSinger wrote:

prefer C/C++/Java to VB, even though it is less productive.

C++ is not less productive. It has certain usage scenarios where any other language fails.

Regards, Nish

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My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com