[R] The "**" exponentiation operator.

[Charles-Édouard Giguère]

Julia allows to do that.

Charles-Édouard Giguère
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Le sam. 30 août 2025, 3 h 46 p.m., Richard O'Keefe <raoknz using gmail.com> a
écrit :

> *Avi* I do wonder if someone has already implemented a language that
> allows sub and superscripts in actual programming.
>
> Why YES.  And a long time ago at that.  The MADCAP 6 programming
> language for the MANIAC II computer, starting back in 1970.
> "A mathematically-natural two-dimensional form for programming" was
> one of the project criteria, and by June 1973 they said they'd done
> it.
> There was an earlier and much less interesting language, so much so
> that I've forgotten pretty much everything else about it,
> where each statement was written on three lines: a superscript line, a
> main line, and a subscript line.
> Well, with punched cards, that was about as good as you could get, and
> recalling that Fortran did not then allow subscripted subjects,
> one subscript line was all you needed.
>
> I've often wondered what happened to MADCAP.
>
> On Sun, 31 Aug 2025 at 06:41, <avi.e.gross using gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > ^Richard**  :  LET'S NOT MUCK AROUND WITH R SYNTAX ANY MORE
> >
> > Fully agreed Richard. There is a tax for trying to redeem for an old
> syn. Who really wants to pay the price given the disruption it can cause?
> >
> > I do wonder if someone has already implemented a language that allows
> sub and superscripts in actual programming. Clearly exponentiation could be
> done if there was a way, as in LaTeX to specify the beginning of a
> superscripted region and the end of it.  Modern screens, within limits,
> could show such code using smaller fonts or other techniques such as colors
> albeit a deeply nested example would be a mess. And, I suspect some
> languages may not tolerate it well such as when python uses indentation for
> grouping.
> >
> >
>
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