Why VB is popular in America!
-
I realized this as I was explaining the 1s floor vs 2nd floor differences[^] between UK and American english. In the UK (and India, Australia) floors are 0-indexed. The ground floor is 0, the first floor above ground is 1, and so on. The basement is usually -1. In the US (and I believe Canada too), floors are 1-indexed. The ground floor is 1, the next floor is 2 and so on. I don't think negative numbering is used for sub-ground levels. May explain why a lot of the C/C++ aficionados are European. While VB and BASIC are essentially American inventions.
Regards, Nish
My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com
There is no way some people are going to take this as joke :laugh:
-
I realized this as I was explaining the 1s floor vs 2nd floor differences[^] between UK and American english. In the UK (and India, Australia) floors are 0-indexed. The ground floor is 0, the first floor above ground is 1, and so on. The basement is usually -1. In the US (and I believe Canada too), floors are 1-indexed. The ground floor is 1, the next floor is 2 and so on. I don't think negative numbering is used for sub-ground levels. May explain why a lot of the C/C++ aficionados are European. While VB and BASIC are essentially American inventions.
Regards, Nish
My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com
Oh, thinly disguised US-bashing troll. Maybe the reason why VB is "popular" in the US is because the US leads the world in computing, with more software, more software engineers, more papers and patents, etc. That means even relatively lame tools like VB have a larger following here. Maybe also it's because BASIC was invented in 1963 at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, when most of Europe was still dreaming pulp sci-fi dreams of "electronic brains". Many BASICs in the US can address the zero-th element of an array. The ANSI standard for BASIC even has a statement, called OPTION BASE that says whether to start numbering array elements at 0 or 1. The US is also the birthplace of C, C++, and Java, which unashamedly number arrays from 0. I've been told these languages are even popular in Europe.
-
Oh, thinly disguised US-bashing troll. Maybe the reason why VB is "popular" in the US is because the US leads the world in computing, with more software, more software engineers, more papers and patents, etc. That means even relatively lame tools like VB have a larger following here. Maybe also it's because BASIC was invented in 1963 at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, when most of Europe was still dreaming pulp sci-fi dreams of "electronic brains". Many BASICs in the US can address the zero-th element of an array. The ANSI standard for BASIC even has a statement, called OPTION BASE that says whether to start numbering array elements at 0 or 1. The US is also the birthplace of C, C++, and Java, which unashamedly number arrays from 0. I've been told these languages are even popular in Europe.
Member 2941392 wrote:
Oh, thinly disguised US-bashing troll.
The US is my home :-)
Member 2941392 wrote:
Maybe the reason why VB is "popular" in the US is because the US leads the world in computing, with more software, more software engineers, more papers and patents, etc. That means even relatively lame tools like VB have a larger following here. Maybe also it's because BASIC was invented in 1963 at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, when most of Europe was still dreaming pulp sci-fi dreams of "electronic brains".
Many BASICs in the US can address the zero-th element of an array. The ANSI standard for BASIC even has a statement, called OPTION BASE that says whether to start numbering array elements at 0 or 1.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).Regards, Nish
My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com
-
Yes but when anyone says first floor here we always mean the ground floor. This confuses Brits and Aussies, and some Indians as well.
Regards, Nish
My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com
Hmm... Even in C we talk about an array, element array[0] is the 1st one, isn't it?
-
Hmm... Even in C we talk about an array, element array[0] is the 1st one, isn't it?
Member 3763608 wrote:
Even in C we talk about an array, element array[0] is the 1st one, isn't it?
Yes, and that's the premise of this joke/thread :-)
Regards, Nish
My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com
-
I realized this as I was explaining the 1s floor vs 2nd floor differences[^] between UK and American english. In the UK (and India, Australia) floors are 0-indexed. The ground floor is 0, the first floor above ground is 1, and so on. The basement is usually -1. In the US (and I believe Canada too), floors are 1-indexed. The ground floor is 1, the next floor is 2 and so on. I don't think negative numbering is used for sub-ground levels. May explain why a lot of the C/C++ aficionados are European. While VB and BASIC are essentially American inventions.
Regards, Nish
My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com
i think to eliminate this disparity, the shift is now towards G (ground), 1,2,3.. not sure for underground levels, may be -1, -2. I don't know how many people would remember high-school Coordinate Geometry to try to rationalise the (-) sign.. :) Good humor anyway...
-
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*
-
What is floor overrun? Yes we have multi-storey buildings. What kind of country do you think it is :p
BobJanova wrote:
What is floor overrun?
I was making a play on concepts from programming, think of buffer overrun.
-
I realized this as I was explaining the 1s floor vs 2nd floor differences[^] between UK and American english. In the UK (and India, Australia) floors are 0-indexed. The ground floor is 0, the first floor above ground is 1, and so on. The basement is usually -1. In the US (and I believe Canada too), floors are 1-indexed. The ground floor is 1, the next floor is 2 and so on. I don't think negative numbering is used for sub-ground levels. May explain why a lot of the C/C++ aficionados are European. While VB and BASIC are essentially American inventions.
Regards, Nish
My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com
Well, the other thing to notice about Americas (may be in Europe as well, don't know) that the so called "believe in science only" people don't have floor no 13th. 14th floor after 12th. :laugh:
Regards, Jwalant Natvarlal Soneji
-
I realized this as I was explaining the 1s floor vs 2nd floor differences[^] between UK and American english. In the UK (and India, Australia) floors are 0-indexed. The ground floor is 0, the first floor above ground is 1, and so on. The basement is usually -1. In the US (and I believe Canada too), floors are 1-indexed. The ground floor is 1, the next floor is 2 and so on. I don't think negative numbering is used for sub-ground levels. May explain why a lot of the C/C++ aficionados are European. While VB and BASIC are essentially American inventions.
Regards, Nish
My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com
-
ii_noname_ii wrote:
Should I be worried about american predator drones dropping bombs
No, unless you have oil.
-
Again, it depends on the building. Some may do that, some may do as I posted. I guess my point is wether your an Aussie, Brit, or born in the USofA you will be confused unless you observe what the building is doing. On a similar point rarely (but not always) is there a 13th floor. Superstition and all. However, as I said this is not always the case. Similarily in Japan you will see the 4th floor missing (not always though).
Computers have been intelligent for a long time now. It just so happens that the program writers are about as effective as a room full of monkeys trying to crank out a copy of Hamlet.
-
Shameel wrote:
ii_noname_ii wrote:
Should I be worried about american predator drones dropping bombs
No, unless you have oil.
Or the guy on the floor above you has it.
Gary
I have LOTS of oil and gas... lol But I use VB?! Please spare me USA?! lol
-
That very thing had me confused in a hotel in Marina Del Rey. I was told my room was on the second floor, and then realised it was actually on the first floor!
------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC Link[^] Trolls[^]
Dalek Dave wrote:
I was told my room was on the second floor, and then realised it was actually on the first floor!
So, you're part of that strange group of people that believe the first floor is one flight above ground level, or did that hotel's lobby start in the first basement's parking garage? :) Actually both C# and VB.NET are consistent, in that the first row's location is 0. (I tend to say "index", I'm told it is actually "offset".) What's confusing in VB is when you ask for 10 rows in an array, you are actually asking for 11 when you come from a C# background and writing in VB.NET. It makes sense when you think about it. The looping where clause in C# checks "i<10" while VB goes "to 9". Both use the original size amount allocated as the terminator of the loop. (At least, if you don't screw up and ask for 10 in VB, when you meant to ask for 9 if you'd understood the allocation mechanism in VB to begin with.) Today, I went to a building's 15th floor and decided to take the stairs down. I like to check each floor as I go down. Wait, this is the 13th floor!!! Oh duh, the second bank of elevators started at 13, just didn't hit me. It always cracks me up when I'm going down one flight of stairs and I go from the 14th to the 12th floor in a modern building. It's even better when I am using stairway 13 to do so. That building required you to go up two flights of stairs to get to the second floor because one whole level of the building was dedicated to air conditioning and didn't allow user access. I kind of wondered how they accessed it for maintenance since there wasn't an unmarked door in the stairway. I figured there's a secret handshake you can use in the elevator to get there. How many coding languages require you to bypass "13" (0xD) as an offset? :laugh:
-
I realized this as I was explaining the 1s floor vs 2nd floor differences[^] between UK and American english. In the UK (and India, Australia) floors are 0-indexed. The ground floor is 0, the first floor above ground is 1, and so on. The basement is usually -1. In the US (and I believe Canada too), floors are 1-indexed. The ground floor is 1, the next floor is 2 and so on. I don't think negative numbering is used for sub-ground levels. May explain why a lot of the C/C++ aficionados are European. While VB and BASIC are essentially American inventions.
Regards, Nish
My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com
Nishant Sivakumar wrote:
In the UK (and India, Australia) floors are 0-indexed. The ground floor is 0, the first floor above ground is 1, and so on. The basement is usually -1.
I have only seen languages that allow you to customize the index scale or allows relative locations like C++ that would allow you to use negative offsets in your location. VB.NET offsets start at 0, just the same as C#. If anything, VB should be more popular in Europe because when you define ten items in VB, it's (9) and the loops go "to 9". In C# you declare [10] for ten items and the loops are "< 10". That's more American than VB. In the US, there isn't a standard for floors below ground, but for many large buildings where the parking is below ground level under the building, they are likely P1, P2, etc. So the ground floor is never 0, it is either 1 or L (for Lobby) The first floor going up from L would be 2. Down would probably be P1.