Hi All, I think we're getting a little off the rails, perhaps because two questions are being conflated:
1. What in principle is the best return type for int ** int (which Josef I think most properly rephrased as whether `**` should be thought of as a float operator, like `/` in python3 and `sqrt` etc.); 2. Whether one is willing to possibly break code by implementing this. My sense is that most discussion is about (1), where a majority may well agree the answer is float, instead of about (2), where it ends up boiling down to a judgment call of "eternal small pain" or "possible short-time big pain but consistency from now on". Perhaps I can introduce an alternative (likely shot down immediately...). For this, note that for division at least, numpy follows python closely, so that one has the following in python2: ``` In [2]: np.arange(10) / 2 Out[2]: array([0, 0, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4]) In [3]: from __future__ import division In [4]: np.arange(10) / 2 Out[4]: array([ 0. , 0.5, 1. , 1.5, 2. , 2.5, 3. , 3.5, 4. , 4.5]) ``` Since negative exponents are really just 1 over the positive one, could we use the same logic for **? I.e., let what type is returned by int1 ** int2 be the same as that returned by int1 / int2? If we then also ensure that for integer output type, int1 ** -int2 returns 1 // (int1 ** int2), we have well-defined rules all around, so there would be no need for raising zero-division error. All the best, Marten
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