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Perhaps thinking about it as an optimisation and not a standard operation is not the best way to look at it.

For example 99% of the time I want a binary shift and not a /2.In a dynamically typed language 201/2 will give you 100.5 when you'd prefer to keep it integer.

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"In a dynamically typed language 201/2 will give you 100.5"

Not necessarily. Python gives 100, PHP gives 100.5, Perl gives 100.5, Ruby gives 100.

Edit: Versions are Python 2.7.3, PHP 5.3.10, Perl 5.14.2 and Ruby 1.8.7, all as shipped with Ubuntu Precise.

Python 3 gives 100.5. Python 2 gives 100 (or 100.5 if you use "from __future__ import division").

But using >> for division is still a bad idea. If you want integer division, use //.

Um, no.

Lisp will give you 201/2.

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