I finally understand what you say!

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But your "problem statement" is really hard to interpret in accordance to idea that you have explained in this forum!

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In fact, your "problem statement" asserts that:

If N is not a power of 2, they reduce the counter by the largest power of 2 less than N.

Let N be equal to 42 (aka 0b101010).

I'm really sorry to contradict you, but every english-speaking person agree with me that "the largest power of 2 less than 42" is 32 (aka 0b100000)!! Right?

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Anyway, according to your really badly stated idea, what is "the largest power of 2 less than 42"?

Is it 8 (aka 0b001000)?!

Or is it 2 (aka 0b000010)?!

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In your opinion, what is the largest power of 2 less than 63 (aka 0b111111)?

32 (aka 0b100000)?!

16 (aka 0b010000)?!

8 (aka 0b001000)?!

4 (aka 0b000100)?!

2 (aka 0b000010)?!

1 (aka 0b000001)?!

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Would do you improve the "problem statement", please? Thanks!

Sergio