Real programmers count from 0 not 1

No. If you have an array with 3 items you don't count "oh i have 0, 1, 2... 2 items", you count the first item as 1 item. Indexing however indicates a position or offset in the array and in order to process an item you need to give the bit-offset of the item which is 0 for the first item and 2*sizeof(item) for the third item.