[Haskell-cafe] Comments on Haskell 2010 Report

[Alex Stangl]

On Sat, Jul 10, 2010 at 12:12:15AM +0200, Julian Fleischer wrote:
> > 8. [...] Saying 0**0 is undefined seems reasonable,
> > but why 0**y?
> I agree on 0**y being 0 (not undefined), but why should 0**0 be undefined? x**0 := 1, by convention. Of course this is a still ongoing debate (regarding analysis of functions etc.), but the most usefull approach for /any/ programming language (and BTW for many mathematical proofs, too).

Hi Julian,

Glad somebody responded about something other than e.g. and i.e.

I wasn't arguing that 0**0 *ought* to be undefined, but that it
is a reasonable policy, since, as you point out, it's a matter
of ongoing debate. What I don't understand is why for y /= 0,
0**y would be undefined. Maybe the discontinuity at zero is
undesirable.

Alex