For some reason, I'm still thinking about a new job

Hmmm. New job. Same as the old job.

Why is there a general preference for for (int i = 0; i < val; i++) instead of while (i++ < val)?

Also, I will be posting a question about lab ideas for the y combinator tomorrow morning.

@BenI. Habit, probably.

Your fingers just rap it out without thought.

And a mutator in a test is normally thought of as a code smell.

And in the body of the resulting loop the values of i are not the same. Think about it.

@Buffy That's a perfect reason.

As far as the side-effect, given the brevity (and the hypothetical commonness) I wouldn't imagine it would cause too much consternation. But the fact that the variable tracks funny is perfect. Thank you for screwing my head back on straight

Actually, that's why it was a smell. (mutator in a test, I mean).

Smelly code....

Stinks

When you smell something, look for the rot.

The y combinator is probably beyond most of our readers, actually.