Yes, you're absolutely right — the initial `xor cl, cl` is technically redundant if we assume all registers are zeroed at start, as stated in the problem.
I kept it in the solution mostly out of habit and to make the logic more explicit, but you're correct that it could be removed, bringing the count down to 16.
That said, for consistency (and because some AI models needed it to understand the logic flow), I still include it when comparing instruction count across different versions.
But you're totally right: under the problem's assumptions, `xor cl, cl` is free.
xddj|8 months ago
I kept it in the solution mostly out of habit and to make the logic more explicit, but you're correct that it could be removed, bringing the count down to 16.
That said, for consistency (and because some AI models needed it to understand the logic flow), I still include it when comparing instruction count across different versions.
But you're totally right: under the problem's assumptions, `xor cl, cl` is free.