Ah, this makes sense at some wacky level.

Consider this array (language doesn't matter here, so this is pseudo-code):

array = ('a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e')

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Some languages use a convention where begin(array) is equivalent to array[0], and end(array) is equivalent to array[5], or one past the last element. A loop in such a world might be written like this:

for (x = 0; x != end(array); ++x)
  do_something(array, x);

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The notation used for such a concept is sometimes this:

[0,5)

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...meaning (0 <= x < 5). This concept and notation is common in C++. And is used by Python's range() function.

Python's range method has the following semantics: 

range(stop)             # 0 .. stop-1
range(start,stop)       # start .. stop-1
range(start,stop,step)  # start .. stop-1 by step: for(ix=0; ix != sto
+p; ix += step) {...}

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In each case start is inclusive, and stop is exclusive. [start,stop) in mathematical notation, or this: (start <= x < stop).


Dave

In reply to Re^3: [OT] Python to Perl. by davido
in thread [OT] Python to Perl. by BrowserUk

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