>| What the sort manpage does not say is that it's numeric comparison does
>| not use atoi() or any of the normal string-to-machine conversions but
>| rather does it's own (admittedly fast) algorithm.
>| However, it does not handle leading "+"s very well, where the other ones do.
>
>On what system did the vendor-supplied sort -n handle a leading `+'
>differently?

Sorry, I meant "the other algorithms", like ato*(3) and friends,
convert leading "+" properly.

Also, the algorithm in the GNU sort does not handle a leading "-." (as in
"-.2")...  the decimal -must- be led by a zero.

Interestingly, no vendor manpage that I've seen defines the format for such
numbers, or in any way indicates they don't use ato*(3) and friends.
Thankfully, there's GNU :)