Re: Negative indexes in ${arr[@]:off:length}

[Greg Wooledge]

On Wed, Jun 29, 2011 at 06:41:25PM +0200, Maarten Billemont wrote:
> 
> This is where preceding the element with the index comes in handy: We start 
> with the index 1, which lays between element 0 and element 1.

... I have a feeling you're taking this definition from some other
language.  Python maybe?  In any case, some language I don't know well.
I don't think this is an intuitive definition.  Worse, I think it
contradicts all the existing definitions used in Bash.

This is how *I* perceive arrays, at least:

Values:  [ a | b | c ]
           ^   ^   ^
Indices:   0   1   2

Using ${array[@]:1:x} ought to start with "b" regardless of whether x
is positive or negative.  "b" is the element with index 1.  Doing it
this weird Python(?)-ish way, where the indices and the elements are
half a unit out of phase, seems rather pointless and ridiculous.  Or
at the very least, needlessly confusing.