this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2025
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wouldn't 0 be 0 and -1 underflow to 255 if 8 bit container? intentional error to enhance engagement?
You're correct but you have an off by 1 error.
First, the genie grants the wish.
NumWishes=0;
Then, having completed the wish, the genie deducts that wish from the remaining wishes.
NumWishes--;
And to complete the thought,
Lastly, the genie checks if the lampholder is out of wishes
If(NumWishes==0) {...}
(255==0) evaluates to False, so we fall past that check.
Yeah, but what if the counter gets decremented before the wish gets granted, huh?
I would assume this to be the case since you cannot un-utter a wish—once you say it, it is counted as a wish before it's fulfilled.
If the counter is decremented only after the wish is fulfilled, then this means you can go back on wishes because they don't count until they're fulfilled, which goes against the lore.
Nah theres just no process for undoing your submission.
It doesn't matter when it's decremented if you can't interrupt the process, anyway.
In a code sense we pause for input, feed it to the wishmaker function, and pause until the thread returns, then decrement.
We could decrement first, also, but neither violates the rules.