[Tex/LaTex] A more wedge-like symbol instead of a caret in typewriter-font text

Question

I'm trying to typeset some computer code which involves a caret (for powers); for example

\verb!x^3+x^2-1!

The trouble here is that the caret produced is rather flat. I could use a wedge instead:

\newcommand{\pwr}{${}^\wedge}$}
\texttt{x\pwr 3+x\pwr 2-1}

but the wedge here is too pointy, as well as being the wrong weight for the typewriter font. What I want to know is: is there a symbol, which comes halfway between caret and wedge in shape, and is the same weight as a typewriter caret (so can be used within \texttt{})?

I've tried replacing \verb!^! with {{}\large\textasciicircum} and this sort of works, but is still clearly not an optimum solution.

Answer 1

The appearance of the care symbol depends on the used font. For example, Courier or TeX Gyre Cursor has a symbol that is something between the caret of the Computer Modern fonts and the \wedge solution.

The following example uses \lstinline instead of \verb, because a symbol can more easily be replaced via option literate:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{listings}
\newcommand*{\caret}{%
  \begingroup
    \fontencoding{T1}%
    \fontfamily{qcr}% TeX Gyre Cursor
    %\fontfamily{pcr}% Courier
    \selectfont
    \string^%
  \endgroup
}
\lstdefinestyle{caret}{
  basicstyle=\ttfamily,
  literate={^}{\caret}{1},
}
\newcommand*{\lstverb}{\lstinline[style=caret]}

\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{ll}
\verb|\verb|: &
  \verb|x^3+x^2-1| \\
\verb|\wedge|: &
  \texttt{x$^\wedge$3+x$^\wedge$2-1} \\
\verb|\lstinline| + \verb|\caret|: &
  \lstverb|x^3+x^2-1| \\
\end{tabular}
\end{document}