Signed word lengths and indexes

[Simen kjaeraas]

BCS <none at anon.com> wrote:

> It looks wrong because i only gets smaller. People are hardwired to  
> think about continues number system, not modulo number system (explain  
> that 0 - 1 = -1 to a 6 year old; easy, explain that 0 - 1 = 2^32-1 to  
> them, good luck). Yes we can be trained to use such system, but most  
> people still wont think that way reflexively.

Hardwired? Hardly. However, continuous number systems are ubiquitous,
modulo systems are not.

As for teaching a 6-year old, give him a wheel with the numbers 0-9
written on each of the ten spokes, and ask him what number you get by
going backward one step from 0.

-- 
Simen