atof problem.

[William Dandreta]

I am having a problem with the atof function. I tried to convert 1,142.00 to
a float but the comma causes a problem. I resolved the problem by removing
the comma but there must be a better way.

I looked in the documentation and there was mention of the $LANG
environmental variable but it did not tell haw to use it. Also, it mentioned
settings could be made using the functions in locale module. I tried to
import the locale module but I get an error message that the _locale module
doesn't exist.

Anyone have a clue about this?

Bill