• Cowabunghole@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    It’s my understanding that i,j are conventionally used in mathematics which carried over into programming, but specifically it comes from Fortran in which all integer variables start with “I” through “N” based on said mathematical convention

    • LuckyFeathers@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yep, this is the answer. In Fortran, all variables are assumed to be floats, unless the variable starts with I, J, K, L, M or N. I’m sure they had a good reason, but it sounds so bizarre today!