C's version is a byproduct of this being easier for hardware to calculate, stemming back from the time, long ago, where that was actually a relevant concern. U

C's version is a byproduct of this being easier for hardware to calculate, stemming back from the time, long ago, where that was actually a relevant concern. Unfortunately hardware never fixed this issue, and C is never going to expose an operator that doesn't map primitively to the hardware, so it became the established default.