diff --git a/lobject.h b/lobject.h
index 286261ae..c2fa373a 100644
--- a/lobject.h
+++ b/lobject.h
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
-** $Id: lobject.h,v 1.18 1998/03/09 21:49:52 roberto Exp roberto $
+** $Id: lobject.h,v 1.19 1998/05/18 22:26:03 roberto Exp roberto $
 ** Type definitions for Lua objects
 ** See Copyright Notice in lua.h
 */
@@ -32,6 +32,11 @@
 #define LUA_NUM_TYPE double
 #endif
 
+/*
+** format to convert number to strings
+*/
+#define NUMBER_FMT  "%g"
+
 typedef LUA_NUM_TYPE real;
 
 #define Byte lua_Byte	/* some systems have Byte as a predefined type */
diff --git a/lvm.c b/lvm.c
index e4fc34c6..44416b0a 100644
--- a/lvm.c
+++ b/lvm.c
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
-** $Id: lvm.c,v 1.28 1998/03/30 13:57:23 roberto Exp roberto $
+** $Id: lvm.c,v 1.29 1998/05/31 22:18:24 roberto Exp roberto $
 ** Lua virtual machine
 ** See Copyright Notice in lua.h
 */
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ int luaV_tostring (TObject *obj)
     if ((real)(-MAX_INT) <= f && f <= (real)MAX_INT && (real)(i=(int)f) == f)
       sprintf (s, "%d", i);
     else
-      sprintf (s, "%g", (double)nvalue(obj));
+      sprintf (s, NUMBER_FMT, nvalue(obj));
     tsvalue(obj) = luaS_new(s);
     ttype(obj) = LUA_T_STRING;
     return 0;