NUMERIC parameter value

NUMERIC DIGITS n
NUMERIC FUZZ n
NUMERIC FORM   SCIENTIFIC
             | ENGINEERING
             | "string constant"
             | [VALUE] expression

The expression evaluator uses arbitrary length arithmetic for numeric
operations. The precision to which operations are carried out by the
evaluator may be altered using the NUMERIC DIGITS command, and is
initially 9. The number supplied will be the number of digits kept after
each operation, not including the decimal point, or leading zeros, which
are dropped by all arithmetic operations. The upper limit for NUMERIC
DIGITS is about 10000 (defined in const.h).  Note that a single
multiplication or division can take many minutes at this precision.

NUMERIC FUZZ is initially zero and is set to zero by each NUMERIC DIGITS
command. It specifies a temporary reduction in the precision of
arithmetic when doing comparisons (remember, for all numeric comparisons,
the two operands are subtracted and the result is compared with zero. It
is the precision of the subtraction which is affected by NUMERIC FUZZ).
The upper limit for NUMERIC FUZZ is clearly one less than the current
value of NUMERIC DIGITS.

NUMERIC FORM is used to set the form of exponents to either `scientific'
mode or `engineering' mode. When an exponent is used, in the scientific
mode there is always precisely one digit, which is non-zero, before the
decimal point. In engineering mode, there are up to three digits before
the decimal point, and the exponent is always a multiple of three.
   If an expression is used, it must evaluate to "SCIENTIFIC" or
"ENGINEERING" in upper case. If the expression does not start with a
symbol or string constant, then the keyword VALUE may be omitted.

The NUMERIC settings are saved across function calls, and restored on
return from a function, so a function may set the precision, etc. that
it needs without affecting the caller.  Moreover, the settings will be
restored to their default settings just after entering any external
REXX procedure.