format (printf like routines)

[Rick Genter]

     With respect to 10**38 being inaccurate:

     Geoff is correct.  Since 10 is not a power of two, to represent 10**38
exactly *does* require many many bits of mantissa (89 to be exact).
*However*, on the VAX, thanks to hardware magic like guard digits, a loop of
38 "* 10.0"s *does* yield the exact representation of 10**38 within the
constraints of a (double).  A subsequent loop of 38 "/ 10.0"s even gives
you 1.0.
--------
Rick Genter 				BBN Laboratories Inc.
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