Numeric casts in locale en_GB on FreeBSD 4.7

Hi,

I am unable to cast a string to float, any way I try.

This is FreeBSD Stable, with Postgresql 7.3.4.

Most (probably) legit methods produce either a message to the effect
that ' ##.##' is an illegal format or ' ' (ie a single space) is an
illegal format.

Workaround is to use en_US as the locale for numerics.

Sorry exact message not retained, butI am not putting the system back to
a non-working condition intentionally :-)

The documentation is not at all clear as to what should be a legal
format string for converting text to numbers, only numbers to text.

I think there should be a default  that works if you say
to_number(variable);
(ie no format string) regardless of the locale.

I am a new user, and assumed it was my mistake for a good 6 hours
of experimenting :-(

Andrew