mwm@ucbtopaz.CC.Berkeley.ARPA (Mike (I'll be mellow when I'm dead) Meyer) (07/20/85)
>Supposedly this is harder to understand. In the book "Learning >to Program in C" by Thomas Plum he mentions that they looked >at a bunch of C code and found out that 90% of C programmers >use i and j as index variables. Which just goes to show that the FORTRAN integer type names will always be with us. <mike
malcolm@spar.UUCP (Malcolm Slaney) (07/21/85)
> Which just goes to show that the FORTRAN integer type names will always be > with us. Oh, give me a break! We can blame a lot of things on Fortran but that isn't one of them. I bet if you look at most math books (before or after the age of Fortran) you'd see a lot of summations indexed with i's, j's and even n's. What a coincidence ..... :-) Cheers. Malcolm
levy@ttrdc.UUCP (Daniel R. Levy) (07/21/85)
From: mwm@ucbtopaz.CC.Berkeley.ARPA (Mike (I'll be mellow when I'm dead) Meyer) Message-ID: <1021@ucbtopaz.CC.Berkeley.ARPA> >>Supposedly this is harder to understand. In the book "Learning >>to Program in C" by Thomas Plum he mentions that they looked >>at a bunch of C code and found out that 90% of C programmers >>use i and j as index variables. > >Which just goes to show that the FORTRAN integer type names will always be >with us. > > <mike > I always thought that the reason that Fortran used default i through n to begin integer variables was from the common use of i through n in mathematics texts to denote subscripts, which are of course integers; so it would make sense for C programmers to do the same regardless of the Fortran legacy. Does that make any sense? -Dan- -- Typo of the month: _______________________________ ______________ | yvel nad | | ------------ | | @ rekcah a | || $ rm *>tmp || | noisivid smetsys retupmoc t&ta | || || | sionilli eikoks | || || | "go for it" | ||____________|| -------------------------------- -------------- /ooooooooooooo/ | /ooooooooooooo/ | -----------------
gwyn@brl-tgr.ARPA (Doug Gwyn <gwyn>) (07/21/85)
> ... 90% of C programmers > >use i and j as index variables. > Which just goes to show that the FORTRAN integer type names will always be > with us. Hey! Mathematicians established this convention long before Fortran. Perhaps 90% of C programmers are literate.
dgary@ecsvax.UUCP (D Gary Grady) (07/22/85)
> >... and found out that 90% of C programmers > >use i and j as index variables. > > Which just goes to show that the FORTRAN integer type names will always be > with us. > <mike Actually, the tradition is much older than Fortran. Indices are traditionally i, j, k, and n in mathematics. And a, b, c, etc. are used for parameters and x, y, z, etc. for variables. Fortran just attempted to follow an older tradition. Remeber that prior to the mid-50s sometime, the word "computer" was a job title for someone hired to perform calculations! -- D Gary Grady Duke U Comp Center, Durham, NC 27706 (919) 684-3695 USENET: {seismo,decvax,ihnp4,akgua,etc.}!mcnc!ecsvax!dgary
jims@hcrvax.UUCP (Jim Sullivan) (07/22/85)
>>Supposedly this is harder to understand. In the book "Learning >>to Program in C" by Thomas Plum he mentions that they looked >>at a bunch of C code and found out that 90% of C programmers >>use i and j as index variables. > >Which just goes to show that the FORTRAN integer type names will always be >with us. Why FORTRAN and not mathematics ? As I remember my math, i, j, and k are generally index variables, a, b, and c are constants; m and n are array bounds; etc. etc. The fact the 90% of C programmers use i and j as index variables is not a particularly stunning fact, it's like saying most programs have at least one if statement. Jim
cdl@mplvax.UUCP (Carl Lowenstein) (07/23/85)
In article <1021@ucbtopaz.CC.Berkeley.ARPA> mwm@ucbtopaz.UUCP (Mike Meyer) writes: >>Supposedly this is harder to understand. In the book "Learning >>to Program in C" by Thomas Plum he mentions that they looked >>at a bunch of C code and found out that 90% of C programmers >>use i and j as index variables. > >Which just goes to show that the FORTRAN integer type names will always be >with us. Mathematicians and physicists were using i and j as index variables long before Fortran. In fact, long before programmable digital computers. -- carl lowenstein marine physical lab u.c. san diego {ihnp4|decvax|akgua|dcdwest|ucbvax} !sdcsvax!mplvax!cdl
ken@boring.UUCP (07/23/85)
In article <1021@ucbtopaz.CC.Berkeley.ARPA> >>at a bunch of C code and found out that 90% of C programmers >>use i and j as index variables. > >Which just goes to show that the FORTRAN integer type names will always be >with us. I was under the impression that they came from the use of i and j as subscripts in mathematical formulae. Ken -- UUCP: ..!{seismo,okstate,garfield,decvax,philabs}!mcvax!ken Voice: Ken! Mail: Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica, Kruislaan 413, 1098 SJ, Amsterdam.
mwm@ucbtopaz.CC.Berkeley.ARPA (Mike (I'll be mellow when I'm dead) Meyer) (07/25/85)
My G*D! The that leaving off one little ":-)" can create. Since history isn't a science, we can't test wether changing FORTRAN to use A to M for integers would change programmers habits. BTW, *REAL* mathematicians don't use i to j as indices. REAL mathematicians don't index over numbers. The index over sets, and use s. :-) And I always use p (for Pointer) as an index in C :-). <mike