On Sep 8, 2011, at 6:05 AM, Dan Nachbar wrote:

> On Sep 8, 2011, at 4:08 AM, Adam Prescott wrote:
> 
>> There's discussion about this at http://www.ruby-forum.com/topic/1393096
> 
> Gary Wright's explanation in the thread linked above is very complete and clear.
> Strongly recommended if you are at all foggy on this topic.

Thanks for the compliment.  I thought I would also point out that while my discussion
in that thread talks about *string* indexing it is equally applicable to *array*
indexing.  Good thing too because I would hate for the behavior to be different.

> I will add one terminology/memory tidbit -
> 
> The difference in the one-arg/two-arg indexing is ruby's way of dealing with
> the classic fence post problem. (i.e. A fence with 3 sections has 4 posts.)

I really like this analogy.