Chris Angelico <ros...@gmail.com>: > I'm not a mathematical expert, so I don't quite 'get' this. How does > this justify 0**0 being equal to 0.5?
Many operations like this are defined in terms of some very strong argument of uniqueness. Ultimately, the key point is safety in mathematical deductions. One minimal requirement would be: lim f(x, y) (x, y) -> (0, 0) must be defined (See <URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limit_of_a_func tion#Functions_of_more_than_one_variable>). If you get sloppy, there is a real risk of terrible logical mistakes and wrong results. I think having 0**0 return a value is as irresponsible as having 0/0 return a value. (The very same principle is used to define 0+0 and 0*0 as well.) Marko -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list