Re: [boost] Alternate Format Mechanism

From: Karl Nelson (kenelson_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-02-12 12:08:24

> > Second suggestion.  
> > 
> > Don't use "%1" this is too easily confused with 
> other 
> > formats ie.  Is this a printf format or yours?
> >    I see %1s.
> > 
> > Use [1] (boost suggestion) or {1} (.NET).  Also 
> this avoids
> > the ending tag problem.
> 
> That sounds reasonable; this was just my default 
> choice because it had been used a lot, rather 
> than a thought-out decision.  Alternatively, I 
> could make this a parameter with a default, but 
> this may add too much complexity.  I could also 
> add a means to specify the format as a 
> vector<int> & a seperation character, for if 
> there is a non-translation use.  One thing I'd 
> like opinions on is whether 0-based counting is a 
> good thing, or should be replaced with 1-based 
> counting.

Most systems I know of are 1-based.  
  - C printf
  - awk  ($0 means whole string)
  - perl 
  - shell

I suspect python is 1-based.  I can't find .NET page right now.

I am sure a number of others.  
Arrays start from zero because there is no offset for 
the first element. That argument does not apply to something
like formatting arguments.   History generally seems to favor
1-based.  However, if you are going to be indexing those arguments 
to the user interface it would be compelling to use 0-based.

--Karl