[ema]

same as the infinite number of zeros in front of a positive number.

[AstralStorm]

Just trimming 1s would be ambiguous. Is b11 3 or -2? You would have to add a 0 prefix to all positive numbers or some other to negative.

[brandonbloom]

Just prefix a + or - just like you do for base 10.

[gpvos]

So then it would not make much of a difference anymore with what Python does. Which was what they wanted to avoid.