Just For Grins
A recent article on "hex editors" ( http://langa.com/newsletters/2006/2006-02-16.htm#1 ) and counting generated quite a bit of mail--- a lot of which argued the pros and cons of whether we really start with "1" or "0" when we count.
Actually "zero" is a fairly sophisticated concept, and is a newish thing in human thinking. Even the simple use of zero as a placeholder only goes back to the Babylonians; and the full-fledged use of zero *as a number* didn't really catch on until about 500AD (or 500CE, to be more politically correct). In other words, the use of zero as a number is a more or less modern thing; a very recent technical convention in the 6 or so million years of human evolution, rather than anything innate or "natural" inside us. We made up zero as a technical convenience.
Not convinced? Well, as the Zen master might say: "Show me zero, grasshopper." You can't show something that isn't there. You can't show absence. Zero is an abstract idea.
Still not convinced? Ever see parents start teaching their kids to count by first introducing the toddler to the concept of "zero fingers?" Nope, neither have I.
C'mon! In daily life, we start counting with "one." <g>
There were some other interesting emails sparked by the discussion on hex and counting, including this:
Fred, long time reader and love the Plus! I've been programming since 1969 on, among other things, a Burroughs B260 (circa 1956) and Sylvania and TI minis. Yep, once you get the hang of it, the lights are much easier to read in Hex. However, another reason for using either octal (base 8) or hex was in bootstrapping the machine. On a restart, the operator had to key in a series of instructions so that the machine could find the input device (card or tape reader). Usually this was about 12-20 instruction and was extremely laborious in binary (of course, after you key it enough times, you start having races to see who can boot the thing the fastest; we're geeks, what can I say).
You really ought to show what "core" memory looked like upclose ( http://members.optushome.com.au/intaretro/1401Core-9L.jpg ) and " in the box" ( http://members.optushome.com.au/intaretro/1401Core-7L.jpg ), and why it took a raised floor air conditioned environment for a machine with less computing power than a PDA today. --- Thanks, Steve
Nice, Steve, Thanks.
Now, back to the zero thing: I'm off to rewrite a bunch of songs.
"Zero as a placeholder, one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready..."
"This old man; he played zero; to mathematicians, he was a hero...
"On the zeroth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me; no-oo-oooo-thing...."
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