2^(-1)

[Jeff P. Burdges (Weasel)]

Why is the class heirarchy set up such that 2^(-1) gives and error in
hugs and ghc?  I don't know if there is some deep issue that requires there
to be some exponential function with this property but this seems like a
pretty serious bug.  The obvios solution:

expon x y = if y<0 then 1 / x^y else x^y

has type (Fractional a, Integral b) => a -> b -> a

So I gues my real question should be:  Why dose Num not require Ord?

Jeff

[see Section 6.3.3 of the report        -moderator]