> And since arithmetic operators are left-to-right associative, the rather ugly code, as written, is fast and not as wasteful as it appears.
This is incorrect, for exactly the reason you are citing: A * x * x * x * x = (((A * x) * x) * x) * x), which means that (x * x) is nowhere to be seen in the expression and cannot be factored out. Now, if you wrote x * x * x * x * A instead, _then_ the compiler could have done partial CSE against the term with B, although still not as much as you'd like.
This is incorrect, for exactly the reason you are citing: A * x * x * x * x = (((A * x) * x) * x) * x), which means that (x * x) is nowhere to be seen in the expression and cannot be factored out. Now, if you wrote x * x * x * x * A instead, _then_ the compiler could have done partial CSE against the term with B, although still not as much as you'd like.