Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <avarab@xxxxxxxxx> writes: > Depending on how we're counting there's at least two. I thought you were asking "why the special sentinel is not 0{40}?" You counted the number of reasons why 0{40} is used to stand in for a real value, but that was the number I didn't find interesting in the scope of this discussion, i.e. "why the special sample is 17?" I vaguely recall we also used 0{39}1 for something else long time ago; I offhand do not recall if we still do, or we got rid of it.