[1] : WordNet (r) 2.0

zeroth
     adj : preceding even the first

[2] : Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001)

zeroth /zee'rohth/ adj. first. among software designers, comes from c's
   and lisp's 0-based indexing of arrays. hardware people also tend to
   start counting at 0 instead of 1; this is natural since, e.g., the 256
   states of 8 bits correspond to the binary numbers 0, 1, ..., 255 and the
   digital devices known as `counters' count in this way.

   hackers and computer scientists often like to call the first chapter
   of a publication `chapter 0', especially if it is of an introductory
   nature one of the classic instances was in the first edition of kr.
   in recent years this trait has also been observed among many pure
   mathematicians who have an independent tradition of numbering from 0.
   zero-based numbering tends to reduce fencepost errors, though it
   cannot eliminate them entirely.


see also:
kr fencepost error 

[3] : The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)

zeroth
     
         first.
     
        since zero is the lowest value of an unsigned binary
        integer, which is one of the most fundamental types in
        programming and hardware design, it is often natural to
        count from zero rather than one, especially when the integer
        is actually an index, as in hardware addressing or c and
        lisp's 0-based indexing of arrays.
     
        hackers and computer scientists often like to call the first
        chapter of a publication "chapter 0", especially if it is of
        an introductory nature one of the classic instances was in
        the first edition of kr.  in recent years this trait has
        also been observed among many pure mathematicians who have an
        independent tradition of numbering from 0.
     
        zero-based numbering tends to reduce fencepost errors,
        though it cannot eliminate them entirely.
     
        logically, the next item after the zeroth should be the
        "oneth" but this is never used.
     
        jargon file
     
        1997-12-07
     
     
see also:
unsigned binary integer hardware index c 
lisp arrays kr fencepost errors jargon file 

Zeroth >> Z Words
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