Do you often find a need to slice hardcoded numbers, however?
I find that the only hardcoded number I often need to slice or index is indeed the start, and most languages do offer something for that such as `slice[..i]` to slice from the start.
Well I was replying to the statement that the OP was saying indexing is less important and I find when dealing with slices it definitely is important (as can be seen in your example).
Generally, I agree with what someone else here stated, 1 or 0 based indexing is less important than open or closed interval. The discussion around these two is typically mixed because 1-indexing uses right-open interval while 0-based indexing uses right-closed.
I find that the only hardcoded number I often need to slice or index is indeed the start, and most languages do offer something for that such as `slice[..i]` to slice from the start.