Ah, now I get what I misinterpreted: I somehow
expected that pow() wouldn't work properly
when using either a negative base OR a non-integer
exponent (and both combined would obviously be
desastrous). Don't ask me why, perhaps I encircled
the idea that I'm pulling some sort of root from the
base, and that this required an integer. Can't tell for
sure. Now that I understand where I was wrong,
I can't make any sense of my former thoughts anymore.

I guess you guys had this feeling (me not making
sense) all along. :-)

And now I fully understand what Warp meant about
int() being useless here etc.

Ah well. Sorry for any inconvenience I caused...

Regards,
Tim

-- 
Tim Nikias v2.0
Homepage: http://www.digitaltwilight.de/no_lights
Email: Tim### [at] gmxde

>
> > I thought that it would solve most problems (like the
> > doc-mentioned non-integer usage for exponents), and
> > you replied that it wouldn't necessarily "fix" anything.
> > What I want to avoid is the platform-specific handling
> > of non-integer exponents. I assume int() would be the
> > way to go.
>
> It is really very simple: as the manual says, the result of a negative
> base raised to a non-integer exponent is undefined. Non-integer
> exponents with positive bases are perfectly acceptable. Using both abs()
> on the base and int() on the exponent is unnecessary, and pretty much
> useless...the int() doesn't avoid any problems. The issue has nothing to
> do with int() vs. floor() or ceil().
>
> The only platform-dependence is the return value of pow(): because of
> the different methods platforms use for performing math and calculating
> the power, they will often come up with slightly different results, and
> they may have different ways of handling undefined "values". There is
> nothing you can do about this, but it is extremely rare for it to be at
> all relevant.
>
> -- 
> Christopher James Huff <cja### [at] earthlinknet>
> http://home.earthlink.net/~cjameshuff/
> POV-Ray TAG: chr### [at] tagpovrayorg
> http://tag.povray.org/

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