It doesn't matter whether $count is zero -- that's the point I was making. The only use the OP's code is making of $count is whether or not to print the four backspaces. Basically, he wants $count to go:
     0, 1, 2, 3, (emit "\b\b\b\b"), 0, 1, 2, 3 , emit, 0, ...
And you've fallen into the same trap of caring what the values are.

All you care about is the sequence:
     loop, loop, loop, loop (emit "\b\b\b\b"), loop, loop, ...
Which is exactly what modulo arithmetic gains you.

You can adjust whether you want the backspaces emitted after the first, second, third, or fourth iteration by changing what value you want to look for (which is what I was trying to get at when I wrote "you should look for == 1 or == 3 depending on what effect you want to achieve.")

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