Bugs item #1454855, was opened at 2006-03-20 14:54
Message generated for change (Comment added) made by rhettinger
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Category: Documentation
Group: Not a Bug
>Status: Closed
>Resolution: Works For Me
Priority: 2
Submitted By: Christoph Zwerschke (cito)
Assigned to: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody)
Summary: Explanation of pow() in lib
Initial Comment:
The Python Lib Reference explains the pow() function in
section 2.1 like that:
>>>
pow( x, y[, z])
Return x to the power y; if z is present, return x
to the power y, modulo z (computed more efficiently
than pow(x, y) % z). The arguments must have numeric
types. With mixed operand types, the coercion rules for
binary arithmetic operators apply. For int and long int
operands, the result has the same type as the operands
(after coercion) unless the second argument is
negative; in that case, all arguments are converted to
float and a float result is delivered. For example,
10**2 returns 100, but 10**-2 returns 0.01.
<<<
The problem is here that the notation 10**2 is used in
the example without prior explanation that it is
equivalent to pow(10,2). A newbie reading the docs in
linear order may not know this here (many other
languages write x^y instead of x**y). The notation x**y
is only introduced later in section 2.3.4.
I recommend adding a short remark to this paragraph
explaining that instead of writing pow(x,y) you can
also write x**y.
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>Comment By: Raymond Hettinger (rhettinger)
Date: 2006-03-20 15:07
Message:
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The Lib Reference is like an encylopaedia; it does not
purport to avoid forward references and be read linearly
start to finish.
Also, in this case the meaning is 100% clear from the
context. IOW, given a discussion about x raised to the y
power and an expression "10**2 returns 100, but 10**-2
returns 0.01", the meaning of the operator is self-evident.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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