Hi Malcolm!
On Thu, 2006-07-13 at 10:57 +0900, Malcolm Cohen wrote:
> But I agree with Loren (and James on this!). I think the standard is
> indeed deliberately silent. The standard does not define everything,
> some things are just not standardised.
I'm really reluctant to disagree with Malcolm, but I will. The standard
isn't silent. Section 7.2.1 defines x**y to be "raising x to the power
y". This is a mathematical definition (if not, it's vacuous), and the
standard mathematical definition of raising ring/field numbers to an
integer power says that x^0 is 1.
I think it's important to recognize that 'raising to an integer power'
and 'raising to a real power' are two distinct functions mathematically.
-Neil
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