4 ms·

I suspect it's to exclude a denominator of 0.

• pierrebai 2y ago
  No, since they use an integer (Z) as the denominator. So their representation support having -1 (i.e 0) as the denominator.
  • marvinborner 2y ago
    Yes, this is mostly a leftover from initial versions that used a natural number as denominator. It doesn't seem to make a noticeable difference in performance though, since increments are a very basic operation. I think leaving this in the article makes the non-zero denominator more explicit. It also allows easier adoption to other numeral systems :)