change in behavior of find

[John W. Eaton]

Is the following change in the way find works intentional?  If so,
why?

  octave3.0:1> find ('a')
  ans =  1

  octave3.2:1> find ('a')
  ans =  1

  octave3.3.51+:1> find ('a')
  error: invalid conversion from string to real N-d array

I'm told that Matlab continues to allow find to work with character
arrays, so this is also a Matlab compatibility issue.

jwe