Why numbering should start at zero?
Please note:
This has nothing to do with networking in particular! Not if you look from only one perspective. If you look from totally different perspective, with Cisco ACI and all other SDN solutions, you will probably meet with Python programming language (because you will) and then, somewhere in beginning of Python exploration this is the first question that will cross your mind. Of course, if you think like me!
Although not directly related to networking, the question bothered me for some time now and the answer is not only really logical when you read it but it is also given by a cool guy named prof.dr. Edsger W. Dijkstra
For almost every networking geek it will be enough to read through it.
Intro
After getting the CCIE I found the next thing I wanted to get my hands around. Python. As it seems, Cisco ACI fabric will be the next big thing in Cisco world. Other vendors all have something about SDN to offer these days. Most important part for us, networking engineers, is that they want us to give up the CLI and get us to use Python and REST calls to speak with our network equipment. Python was the logical next step.
I signed and passed Dr. Chuck’s Coursera Python class:
- Programming for Everybody (Python) by Charles Severance
And got some books:
- Python for Informatics by Charles Severance (Coursera Professor)
- Learning Python, Fifth Edition by Mark Lutz
- Python Pocket Reference, Fifth Edition by Mark Lutz
- Fluent Python by Luciano Ramalho
After first few great lectures on Coursera by Dr.Chuck the question was born!
The Question
So my questions arose: “Why the hell in Python slices and range exclude the last item?”, “Why?”, “It’s not logical to me!”