zlacker

I mean that the number 0 specifically can be written by empty string, so that we would count like

"", "1", "2", "3", "4", ..., "9", "10", "11", "12", ..., "99", "100", "101", ...

The only change is the empty string being a valid name for a number (the number zero).

I don't mean to suggest getting rid of place value or the digit 0! This is more like making the place value system more consistent with respect to a corner case.

And the practical reason that we can't make this change is that we don't have a way to distinguish in writing between the absence of any string and the presence of the empty string.