[GROOVY-7428] Change precedence priority of ** compared to pre/post inc/dec and unary plus/minus

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Won't Fix
• Assignee: Paul King
• Reporter: Paul King
• Created: 18/May/15 11:18
• Updated: 19/Oct/15 16:13
• Resolved: 21/Jun/15 12:06

Description

Currently the precedence order is:

level 1: post inc/dec
level 2: power
level 3: pre inc/dec

The original intention, I believe, was always:

level 1: post inc/dec
level 2: pre inc/dec
level 3: power

This leads to some unintuitive behavior:
while these are the same:

println (-9 + 2)  //  -7
println ((-9) + 2)  //  -7

these are different:

println (-9 ** 2)  //  -81  actually: println (-(9 ** 2))
println ((-9) ** 2)  //  81

Similar anomalies occur between ** and ++/--