Short: New efun pow()
From: Matthew Julius <julius.2@wright.edu>
Date: Fri, 08 Jan 1999 16:29:08 -0500
Type: Feature
State: Done - implemented in 3.2-dev.120

int|float pow(int|float, int|float)
  The ability to return an integer when possible is highly desirable.
    pow(2, 31) returns 2147483648
    pow(2, 1.5) returns 2.82843
    pow(2, 32) returns 4.29497e+09
    pow(2.5, 1.5) returns 3.95285
    pow(2.5, 1) returns 2.5

alfebtcd wrote:

> please refrain from returning unpredictable types.  it seems ok to me to
> return an int when the input was ints; raise an error when the result is
> too great for an int then.  the user should know whether the results can
> become that great, and in case use to_float().

*chuckle*  I really must not have been thinking in this case.  Yes, raise
an error when the result cannot be stored in an integer--when two integers
are passed that is.  If either argument is a float the result is a float,
of course.