keyboard macro counter

[Luc Teirlinck]

`(emacs)Keyboard Macro Counter' claims:

        Each keyboard macro has an associated counter

This is apparently wrong.  Each macro _that is a member of the
keyboard macro ring_ as an associated counter.  Also, the counter used
by a keyboard macro (say invoked using a keybinding or with M-x) is
not the counter associated with that macro (even if it has one) but
the counter associated with the current head of the macro ring.  That
is the actual counter that will get inserted and incremented,
regardless of the macro currently being executed.

Is this for some reason designed behavior or is this a bug?

To illustrate what I am talking about, see what happens if you do:

emacs -q
C-x ( a C-x C-k C-i RET C-x ) C-x C-k n aa RET C-x ( b M-5 C-x C-k C-i
RET C-x ) M-x aa RET C-x e

Sincerely,

Luc.