My advice to you would be call it what it is.
A apple is a apple ya know.
except when you are a programmer.
in a failsafe system, to differentiate NO data from ZERO data.
because if you have a sensor failure or disconnect, the input reads continuously low, you need to be able to differentiate that..
00000000 = no data incoming opposed to it having an actual value of zero, otherwise on failure the system would continue to operate as if the value was "zero" instead of halting.
so you can't count from "zero". so you need to count from one.
00000001 = 0
00000010 = 1
00000011 = 2
.
.
.
11111110 = 253
11111111 = 254
but knowing this, leads to some interesting conversations with people who have no idea.
"what is the current data of the X sensor?"
"nothing"
"nothing or ZERO"
"I don't know... it's nothing it's showing nothing"
"so it showing as blank?"
"no it has 3 zeros"
okay the sensor value IS zero then.
"what is the value of Y sensor then?"
"nothing"
*Disheartened sigh*
".........nothing....... or ZERO"
"nothing"
".....like blank?"
"yeah, like blank"
"HALLELUJAHHHHHH"