[ruby-talk:5934] squares of negative numbers

I notice that

-2**2   gives   4
- 2**2  gives  -4

x=-2
-x**2   gives  -4

Matz, why is this a good idea?  Sure, it saves parentheses.  
But people who use math expect powers to have priority over 
squares.  I expect to write

  2
-2 = -4

If I want to square -2, I expect to use parentheses.  I feel 
that this is sure to cause errors, and it will be bad in 
interactive systems like irb (interactive ruby).

Carl Mueller