2016 Update

Task/Exponentiation-operator/AWK/exponentiation-operator-1.awk

@@ -1,7 +1 @@
 $ awk 'function pow(x,n){r=1;for(i=0;i<n;i++)r=r*x;return r}{print pow($1,$2)}'
-2.5 2
-6.25
-10 6
-1000000
-3 0
-1

Task/Exponentiation-operator/AWK/exponentiation-operator-2.awk

@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+If you want to use arbitrary precision number with (more recent) awk, you have to use -M option :
+$ gawk -M '{ printf("%f\n",$1^$2) }'

Task/Exponentiation-operator/AWK/exponentiation-operator-3.awk

@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+And if you want to use locales for decimal separator, you have tu use -N option :
+$ gawk -N '{ printf("%f\n",$1^$2) }'