Test failure for num2str.m

[Daniel J Sebald]

There is this test failure:

> > > > > processing /usr/local/src/octave/octave/octave/scripts/general/num2str.m
  ***** xtest
 assert (num2str (1e23), "100000000000000000000000");
!!!!! known failure
assert (num2str (1e23),"100000000000000000000000") expected
100000000000000000000000
but got
99999999999999991611392

We know the issue, i.e., limitation of floating point numbers.

The question is, is this expected behavior?  If so, I suggest altering 
the test so that it doesn't fail would be good.  (Otherwise, the only 
fix is for the numeric class to store the string if it exceeds 
precision...which would be a ton of work.)

But what of this FIXME?

## FIXME: Integers greater than bitmax() should be masked to show just
##        16 digits of precision.
%!xtest
%! assert (num2str (1e23), "100000000000000000000000");

What is the point there?

Dan

PS: Why is num2str.m in the "general" subdirectory as opposed to the 
"strings" subdirectory?