why sqrt is not a built-in function?

[Eli the Bearded]

In comp.lang.python, Skip Montanaro  <skip.montanaro at gmail.com> wrote:
> Finally, should have never considered it, I think you might want to
> study the output of
> 
> import this
> 
> Think on the second and last lines in particular.

   >>> import this
   The Zen of Python, by Tim Peters

   Beautiful is better than ugly.
   Explicit is better than implicit.
   Simple is better than complex.
   Complex is better than complicated.
   Flat is better than nested.
   Sparse is better than dense.
   Readability counts.
   Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules.
   Although practicality beats purity.
   Errors should never pass silently.
   Unless explicitly silenced.
   In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess.
   There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it.
   Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you're Dutch.
   Now is better than never.
   Although never is often better than *right* now.
   If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad idea.
   If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea.
   Namespaces are one honking great idea -- let's do more of those!
   >>> 

"There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it."

Meanwhile, Alan Gauld pointed out:

  AG> because pow() is a builtin function and
  AG> root = pow(x,0.5)
  AG> is the same as
  AG> root = math.sqrt(x)

Plus the ** operation ("root = x ** 0.5"), that's now three ways.

Elijah
------
python user, not python advocate