Sorry to completely rewrite this post, but I was way off on my troubleshooting. Hopefully this prevents someone's headache in the future...
Now, for example code.
function compare(uint8 a, uint8 b)
private
requireUnpaused
returns(bool)
{
// increment a by 1
a = a++;
// if a + 1 = 3, then loop it around the cycle to be 0
if (a >= 3) {
a = 0;
}
// compare a to b. If a = b, a is the winner - return true
return a == b ? true : false;
}
This code works as expected if I replace "a = a++" with "a = ++a", just "a++" or "++a", or even "a = a + 1".
This drove me crazy for a few days. My question for someone more versed in this than I: Why does "a = a++" not work, when every other way of incrementing "a" by 1 does?