[Numpy-discussion] Integers to integer powers, let's make a decision

[Matthew Brett]

On Sat, Jun 4, 2016 at 12:47 PM,  <josef.pktd at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Sat, Jun 4, 2016 at 3:43 PM, Charles R Harris <charlesr.harris at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Jun 4, 2016 at 11:22 AM, Charles R Harris
>> <charlesr.harris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi All,
>>>
>>> I've made a new post so that we can make an explicit decision. AFAICT,
>>> the two proposals are
>>>
>>> Integers to negative integer powers raise an error.
>>> Integers to integer powers always results in floats.
>>>
>>> My own sense is that 1. would be closest to current behavior and using a
>>> float exponential when a float is wanted is an explicit way to indicate that
>>> desire. OTOH, 2. would be the most convenient default for everyday numerical
>>> computation, but I think would more likely break current code. I am going to
>>> come down on the side of 1., which I don't think should cause too many
>>> problems if we start with a {Future, Deprecation}Warning explaining the
>>> workaround.
>
>
> I'm in favor of 2.  always float for `**`
> I don't see enough pure integer usecases to throw away a nice operator.

I can't make sense of 'throw away a nice operator' - you still have
arr ** 2.0 if you want floats.

Matthew