[wbhart]

Many divide-and-conquer algorithms seem to be easier to express with 0 based indexing, whereas quite a few array operations seem to be better with 1 based indexing. I can certainly understand and appreciate the different points of view, I just personally always think about algorithms with 0-based arrays.

[warmfuzzykitten]

As does anyone trained in the C tradition, but it's annoying, too, to have to translate 1-based math formulas to the C convention. Having recently used Octave for the Stanford online ML class after a couple decades of C, C++ and Java, I doubt programmers will have trouble with the mental transition.