Linear algebra is the most practically consequential one - and suffice it to say, it’s not a coincidence that BLAS, LINPACK, and LAPACK were all written in one-

Linear algebra is the most practically consequential one - and suffice it to say, it’s not a coincidence that BLAS, LINPACK, and LAPACK were all written in one-based languages. Matrix indexing is one-based, and beyond the issue of translating notation from equations, IIRC there is even a slight performance difference in some cases. I believe what it really comes down to is that, just as zero-based really is more natural for offsets (zero offset means the first position, great for pointers), one based really is more natural for counting [and _sets_] (when your index is n that means you have counted n elements up until now).