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From: Kaz Kylheku <643-408-1753@kylheku.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.awk
Subject: Re: Operator precedence
Date: Sat, 25 May 2024 22:20:42 -0000 (UTC)
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
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On 2024-05-25, Axel Reichert <mail@axel-reichert.de> wrote:
> Kaz Kylheku <643-408-1753@kylheku.com> writes:
>
>> in the left associative semantics, we have a choice. We can do the
>> exponentation earnestly as if by:
>>
>>   (expt (expt 5 2) 3)
>>
>> Or we can take advantage of the identity:
>>
>>   (expt 5 (* 2 3))
>>
>> The former could be important in some situation involving
>> floating-point: you can't always use simplifying identities.
>
> I cannot readily imagine a scenario in which simplifying is not possible
> or is disadvantageous. Could you please elaborate?

I'm simply not enough of a numerical analyst to be able to rule such a
situation as nonexistent.

-- 
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