[masklinn]

> A difference is that in the case of bibi-binary the intent is to encode numbers

bibi-binary is intended to encode raw binary data, not specifically numbers (at least not beyond 15). We already have a script and words which work mostly fine for numbers after all.

> The other difference is that the inventor of bibi-binary was a comedian who obviously did it as a tongue-in-cheek novelty

He was also a mathematician — his studies stopped because of world war II forced labour (from which he escaped) and he did patent bibi-binary, it was not just a joke.

And calling him a comedian is a bit reductive, comedianship was his outlet for a passion for wordplay, something he first tried as a songwriter (and poet), but he could find no singer, so ultimately ended up doing it himself.