Exponentiation operator

[wild-billy]

So the math module has 2 different exponentiation functions, pow(x,y) and ``^(x,y). The operator version (`^`) can't handle negative `y`, which is an unexpected limitation.

Since both are ostensibly supposed to represent the same operation ("x raised to the power of y"), I'd suggest making ^ an alias for pow() (least surprise, right?), and optimizing pow() if needed/desired.

This hopefully wouldn't break any existing code (exponentiation is exponentiation, in theory), and frankly it's probably best to end the opportunity for any code to depend on the difference.

[dom96]

^ has the advantage that it will work at compile-time.

[dom96]

@def- could we add support for negative y to ^?

[Araq]

@dom96 Both work at compile-time.

[dom96]

Legacy I presume.

[reactormonk]

Wanna deprecate one or are two fine?

[dom96]

no reason to deprecate.

[reactormonk]

Then switch ^ to call pow?

[dom96]

@reactormonk yes.

[reactormonk]

The documentation explicitly states that x must be non-negative and I assume it has a reason, because pow loses precision, where ^ does not. Maybe rename ^ to something else?

[reactormonk]

@BigBoneDaddy Nope, that's from the concept. ^ can use ints, where pow uses floats by default. Nothing to test here.

[dom96]

I don't see why we would need two different versions of ^ with subtle differences. But this issue is low priority I guess anyway.