nx_itoaclone.nx

nx_itoaclone.nx -- census of HAND-ROLLED integer->decimal emitters that SILENTLY DROP NEGATIVES. WHY THIS EXISTS. nx_matter_lib.mt_catn -- the number formatter for the BILLING/matter lane -- emitted ZERO BYTES for any v < 0: its digit loop is `while m > 0` and the only special case was `m == 0`, so a negative rendered as an EMPTY FIELD. Caught 2026-08-15 by a values-dump in nx_billing_gate printing `overdraw_rc=` with nothing after it. The value was -1, the REFUSAL SENTINEL, and the tooth asserting it was PASSING the whole time. **A NUMBER FORMATTER THAT EMITS NOTHING FOR A NEGATIVE TURNS AN ERROR CODE INTO AN ABSENT FIELD, AND AN ABSENT FIELD READS AS "NOT MEASURED" RATHER THAN "MEASURED, AND NEGATIVE"** -- the worst available direction to fail, because every positive value keeps printing perfectly and nothing looks wrong. THE CLASS IS NOT ONE SITE. A literal grep for the digit-emit idiom returns matches=2545 over 23,169 files (corpus_complete=1) -- roughly 29x the "~87 sites" nx_itoa_lib's own header estimates, so that estimate is stale. Reading 2545 sites is not an option and SAMPLING them would answer the wrong question: rare and empty demand different decisions, and only a full pass can tell them apart. WHAT IT MEASURES. Per function (split on a line-initial `func `), a body is an EMITTER if it contains the ASCII-digit idiom (a `48 +` next to a `% 10`). An emitter is NEGATIVE-SAFE if that same body contains a `< 0` test; otherwise it DROPS NEGATIVES. DECLARED IMPRECISION -- read this before trusting a number: * FLOOR, NOT A TOTAL. Emitters whose digit base is a NAMED CONST (`SG_D0 + (x % 10)`) or that build digits MSB-first via a power-of-ten walk are NOT matched by the `48 +` anchor. The real emitter population is >= what this reports. * The `< 0` test is presence-in-body, not dataflow. A body containing an UNRELATED `< 0` is scored SAFE, so this UNDER-reports the defect. That direction is deliberate: a detector with false positives is worse than none, because everyone learns to ignore it. Every offender is NAMED so the claim is checkable one file at a time rather than taken on faith. * The verdict binds to this organ's OWN CONTROLS (bite + positive control + coverage), NEVER to the offender count. An uncalibrated classifier must report numbers, not verdicts. license_tier: ORIGINAL Read-only: opens sources, writes nothing outside /tmp fixtures.