language design - Boolean true - positive 1 or negative 1?

Question

I'm designing a language, and trying to decide whether true should be 0x01 or 0xFF. Obviously, all non-zero values will be converted to true, but I'm trying to decide on the exact internal representation.

What are the pros and cons for each choice?

Answer 1

It doesn't matter, as long as it satisfies the rules for the external representation.

I would take a hint from C here, where false is defined absolutely as 0, and true is defined as not false. This is an important distinction, when compared to an absolute value for true. Unless you have a type that only has two states, you have to account for all values within that value type, what is true, and what is false.