--- a/src/ChangeLog	Tue Aug 22 04:42:36 2006 +0000
+++ b/src/ChangeLog	Tue Aug 22 05:13:42 2006 +0000
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+2006-08-22  John W. Eaton  <jwe@octave.org>
+
+	* ls-oct-ascii.cc: Increase default value of save_precision to 16.
+
+	* ls-mat-ascii.cc (save_mat5_ascii_data): Use scientific format.
+
 2006-08-21  John W. Eaton  <jwe@octave.org>
 
 	* ls-mat5.cc (read_mat5_binary_data, read_mat5_integer_data,

--- a/src/ls-mat-ascii.cc	Tue Aug 22 04:42:36 2006 +0000
+++ b/src/ls-mat-ascii.cc	Tue Aug 22 05:13:42 2006 +0000
@@ -334,9 +334,6 @@
 {
   bool success = true;
 
-  long old_precision = os.precision ();
-  os.precision (precision);
-
   if (val.is_complex_type ())
     warning ("save: omitting imaginary part for ASCII file");
 
@@ -349,9 +346,20 @@
       error_state = 0;
     }
   else
-    os << m;
+    {
+      long old_precision = os.precision ();
+
+      os.precision (precision);
 
-  os.precision (old_precision);
+      std::ios::fmtflags oflags
+	= os.flags (static_cast<std::ios::fmtflags> (std::ios::scientific));
+
+      os << m;
+
+      os.flags (oflags);
+
+      os.precision (old_precision);
+    }
 
   return (os && success);
 }

--- a/src/ls-oct-ascii.cc	Tue Aug 22 04:42:36 2006 +0000
+++ b/src/ls-oct-ascii.cc	Tue Aug 22 05:13:42 2006 +0000
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@
 #include "ls-oct-ascii.h"
 
 // The number of decimal digits to use when writing ascii data.
-static int Vsave_precision = 15;
+static int Vsave_precision = 16;
 
 // Functions for reading ascii data.
 
@@ -357,15 +357,9 @@
 {
   bool success = true;
 
-  if (! precision)
-    precision = Vsave_precision;
-
   if (! name.empty ())
     os << "# name: " << name << "\n";
 
-  long old_precision = os.precision ();
-  os.precision (precision);
-
   octave_value val = val_arg;
 
   if (mark_as_global)
@@ -373,7 +367,13 @@
   else
     os << "# type: " << val.type_name() << "\n";
 
-  success = val . save_ascii(os, infnan_warned, strip_nan_and_inf);
+  if (! precision)
+    precision = Vsave_precision;
+
+  long old_precision = os.precision ();
+  os.precision (precision);
+
+  success = val . save_ascii (os, infnan_warned, strip_nan_and_inf);
 
   os.precision (old_precision);