Re: [Fsfe-uk] AFFS web site

[Alex Hudson]

On Thu, May 01, 2003 at 01:00:34PM +0100, Marc Eberhard wrote:
> > Can we please change the numbering? To the average person who counts from
> > 1, the use of "0,1,2,3" looks odd at best.
> 
> http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
> 
> Not sure, why the FSF decided to number from 0, but as these numbers are
> freqeuntly used when refering to the freedoms, we'd probably create some
> confusion by changing it. The only compromise I could see, would be to drop
> the numbers entirely or to explain, that programmers start arrays at element
> 0 and not 1.

I think it was the C array thing. I guess you could read it as a tribute
to Asimov or something, though. 

I would prefer to keep it identical to the FSF version, especially since
I have seen people refer to freedoms by number in the past. But, I take
Andrew's point - it would be useful to explain the numbering beforehand.
I'm sure I have read it somewhere, but it's perhaps something RMS only
explains at his talks. I'm pretty confident it's a kind of hacker joke 
though.

Cheers,

Alex.