Re: innovation

There were Greek numerals before Roman numerals. The representation system is even less developed than Roman.

Also, I think there are two steps between Roman and Arabic:

The inclusion of zero as a cipher, and place value notation.

Place value notation doesn't work very well, unless you have a zero cipher. For centuries, the representation of the zero cipher was simply a dot. It wasn't actually considered a cipher as such. Instead it was considered as a marker for a cipher position that didn't have a cipher in it. (Does this remind you of the recent discussion of NULL?) It was only over the course of time that the cipher zero came to have the same standing as one through nine. It also grew from a dot to a little circle. Received on Sat May 15 2004 - 13:25:14 CEST