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From: Ben.Stuyts@p6.f202.n281.z2.fidonet.org (Ben Stuyts)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.modula2
Subject: Re: Why no ** operator in Modula2?
Message-ID: <1302.284A5A7F@puddle.fidonet.org>
Date: 31 May 91 03:50:40 GMT
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dww@math.fu-berlin.de (Debora Weber-Wulff) writes:

 DW> The question came up in class today: Why is there no ** or ^
 DW> (x to the nth power) operator in standard Modula2?
 DW> To make you start your own private module collection of goodies?
 DW> Because it is machine dependant???

Probably because it is the spirit of Wirth's languages that they are
easy to parse and it is easy to generate code for the underlying machine
architecture. And as there are usually no 'power' type instructions, Wirth
did not add it to the language but put it in the MathLib library instead.

Best regards,
Ben


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