Re: column number starts at 1 or 0?

Hiding the truth (0-based column numbering) from the user is unhelpful long term. fill-column, comment-column, set-goal-column, etc. don't believe in the fictional 1-based numbering. So the users are going to have to deal with the reality of the 0-based numbering eventually. Whether the current coordinate system is crocked or not is not relevant. It is reality and at this point it is immutable without hosing code far and wide. Best to let the users see the reality and get used to it. In my opinion, that is why the start-at-one variable is a bad idea and should be eliminated.