// istop = end of number, including scientific notation

      int istart = i;

      int istop = istart + strspn(&str[i],"0123456789eE.-") - 1;

      while (str[istop] == '-') istop--;

      i = istop + 1;

      while (isdigit(str[i]) || str[i] == '.') i++;

      if (str[i] == 'e' || str[i] == 'E') {

	i++;

	if (str[i] == '+' || str[i] == '-') i++;

	while (isdigit(str[i])) i++;

      }

      int istop = i - 1;

      int n = istop - istart + 1;

      char *number = new char[n+1];