Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!ssc-vax!cxsea!blm
From: blm@cxsea.UUCP (Brian Matthews)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Power proposal for ANSI C -- we already have what we need
Message-ID: <2324@cxsea.UUCP>
Date: 11 Jan 88 16:35:18 GMT
References: <38384@sun.uucp> <3812@hoptoad.uucp>
Reply-To: blm@cxsea.UUCP (Brian Matthews)
Organization: Computer X Inc.
Lines: 40

John Gilmore (gnu@hoptoad.uucp) writes:
|[Good reasons why function prototypes and a smart compiler make the
| pow function just fine...]
|Does *anybody* have a problem with this???  I think it would be crazy
|to change the standard for something like this.  Adding new multi-character
|arithmetic operators to the language at the final stage of review?
|Be serious.  We laughed at ( ), we roared at noalias, who would believe 
|us if we overloaded ** to mean a crippled float/int-only exponentiation?
|we already have one crippled math op (% doesn't work on floats, for no reason),
|why add another?

I'm sure somebody has a problem with this, but not me.  I would be in favor of
adding a power operator iff:

    1.  It works with both integral and floating point types, just
	like all of the other arithmetic operators (yes, expect %),

    2.  It followed the same rules in regards to type promotion as
	the other arithmetic operators, and

    3.  A syntax is proposed which doesn't break existing code or
	require the compiler to choose between two different meanings
	to a statement based upon the types of the operands.  This
	means ** and -> are both unacceptable.  I would also say ^^
	is unacceptable in the hopes of getting a boolean
	exclusive-or.

    4.  A corresponding op= operator was added (i.e. like +=, -=,
	etc.)

In other words, make the exponentiation operator look like part of
the language, instead of something hurriedly tacked on.  This is
especially true when there is already a good way of doing
exponentiation, as outlined by John in the article I quoted.

-- 
Brian L. Matthews                               "A power tool is not a toy.
...{mnetor,uw-beaver!ssc-vax}!cxsea!blm          Unix is a power tool."
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