diff -r 1abf4b2fda6d pure/lib/primitives.pure
--- a/pure/lib/primitives.pure	Thu Jul 22 23:44:50 2010 +0000
+++ b/pure/lib/primitives.pure	Sun Jul 25 18:09:27 2010 +0200
@@ -1068,15 +1068,25 @@
 extern double pow(double, double);
 namespace;
 
-x::double^y::double	= __C::pow x y;
+x::double^y::double	= impl x y with
+    // For any value of y (including NaN), if x is +1, 1.0 shall be
+    // returned.
+    impl x y = 1.0 if x == 1;
+
+    // If x is -1, and y is ±Inf, 1.0 shall be returned.
+    impl x y = 1.0 if x == -1 && infp y;
+
+    impl x y = __C::pow x y;
+end;
+
 x::int^y::int		|
 x::bigint^y::bigint	|
 x::int^y::bigint	|
-x::bigint^y::int	= __C::pow (double x) (double y);
+x::bigint^y::int	= (double x) ^ (double y);
 x::double^y::int	|
-x::double^y::bigint	= __C::pow x (double y);
+x::double^y::bigint	= x ^ (double y);
 x::int^y::double	|
-x::bigint^y::double	= __C::pow (double x) y;
+x::bigint^y::double	= (double x) ^ y;
 
 /* Pointer arithmetic. We do this using bigints, so that the code is portable
    to 64 bit systems. */