What is the logic behind "possible misuse of hexadecimal literal notation"?

[Greedquest]

This code

i = ((l1 Xor &H8000) + l2 * 256) Xor &H8000

Gets warning:

 {WARNING} /vbInvoke/Sources/MemoryTools/TestLibMemory.bas [74,26]: Possible misuse of hexadecimal literal notation.  This value is interpretted as a signed Integer: -32768 (not 32768 as you might expect)

For me those Hex codes are clearly being used to set bits, rather than as numbers. So what is the logic there?

l = (((l1 + l2 * 256 + l3 * 256 ^ 2) Xor &H80000000) + l4 * 256 ^ 3) Xor &H80000000

this looks similar but there is no warning

[bclothier]

Those aren't the same thing. &H8000 evaluates to -32768 whereas &H8000& evaluates to 32768. If the terms are all Integers you won't notice any difference. However if they are Long, what you are doing is the difference between &HFFFF8000& vs &H00008000& which can mess up the bits in the upper portion of the value.

[KubaO]

Put simply

• &H8000 is really &H8000%. Since the % type (integer) has range from -32768 to 32767, it can't represent 32768 (&H8000).
• &H8000_0000 is really &H8000_0000&. Since the & type (long) has range -2_147_483_648 to 2_147_483_647, and it can't represent 2_147_483_648 (&H8000_0000) either. So there should be a warning there too.

those Hex codes are clearly being used to set bits

Bits are numbers :)