[n2d4]

> What is stated is: “If any count value is zero, no subsequent dimensions are allocated.” This is mostly just for clarification, because what could the alternative possibly be?

The key part comes a bit later:

> The components of the last !!allocated!! dimension of the array are initialized to the default initial value (§2.3, §2.4) for the element type of the array type.

Since the last allocated dimension is the one that has zero count... well, that means each component (of which there are none) is initialized to a value of type `int`, so technically speaking, the type of each component (of which there are none) is `int`. Due to the rest of the spec, that means the type of the dimension before that is `int[]`; and that's how you arrive at the conclusion of TFA.

It's quirky, and a semantic argument at best, and certainly not worth fighting over here on HN.