I may be mistaken, but I read it the way, that the pop delivers the scalar parameter for lc, (replace it with shift, the result is the same).

the basic is that you get a list of all values between a and the parameter, evaluated in scalar-context (I had this wrong at first :-), you get the length of the list, which is of course the decimal representation.

regards,
tomte

Hlade's Law:

If you have a difficult task, give it to a lazy person --
they will find an easier way to do it.