[R6RS] A nit for R6RS: `expt' specification
Alan Bawden
Alan
Mon Oct 11 18:32:52 EDT 2004
[ I sent this message to "rrrs-authors at zurich.csail.mit.edu" earlier today,
but really, I?should have sent it here. ]
From: Aubrey Jaffer <agj at alum.mit.edu>
...
(expt 0 -255) ==> 0 ;!
...
The statement from R5RS:
0^z is 1 if z = 0 and 0 otherwise.
R5RS really does say that, doesn't it. Ick. I think this is probably an
oversight. We were attempting to follow Common Lisp and APL when it came
to boundary conditions and branch cuts. The Common Lisp specification says
that:
/ 1 if z = 0
0^z = { 0 if Re(z) > 0
\ error otherwise
I would propose that R6RS should say the same thing.
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