It doesn't. If we forget about FPU flags, floating-point multiplication is pure. That does not change anything to the fact that a * (b * c) is different from (a * b) * c.
The problem is not side-effects in multiplication. The problem is that * is not associative.
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How would a functional language compiler deal with this case? like GHC?
It doesn't. If we forget about FPU flags, floating-point multiplication is pure. That does not change anything to the fact that a * (b * c) is different from (a * b) * c.
The problem is not side-effects in multiplication. The problem is that * is not associative.
You could try it out!