title: Why are leading zeroes used to represent octal numbers?
body: <p>I've always wondered why leading zeroes (<code>0</code>) are used to represent octal numbers, instead of &#8212; for example &#8212; <code>0o</code>. The use of <code>0o</code> would be just as helpful, but would not cause as many problems as leading <code>0</code>es (e.g. <code>parseInt('08');</code> in JavaScript). What are the reason(s) behind this design choice?</p>