Are there tests for this branch?
Can you elaborate on when this branch is executed, and possibly add a test that ensures that the position just needs to be updated toi + 1 and notk?

I have no idea what the ideal code should be — this is already an edge-case, that in a previous strict mode caused the parsing to fail.

This un-executed code was addedin 2010 — maybe@bitdancer has more context (though I can hardly remember what I did last month, let alone answer for code I wrote 15 years ago).

My general rule in these things is to clear up code so it matches what executes in production, and remove things that might trip up someone debugging the code into thinking the codedid something.

No surprise, I have no memory of this. Looking at the original diff I don't see that that if on k was doing anything, and certainly in the current code it isn't doing anything. k doesn't have a meaningful value at that point, and isn't used.