(newbie) fractional arithmetic

[Joshua McFadden]

Hello!  Short version: can Octave perform fractional arithmetic?  E.g.,
     1
 x = -
     9
instead of 0.1111... as a floating double?

Quoting the manual, "Note that all numeric constants are represented
within Octave in double-precision floating point form."  I was hoping
someone had written a way around that.  :)

I'm trying to explore iteration periods of the doubling function for a
class, and repeating decimals get lost in precision errors pretty quickly.
If anyone can suggest a more appropriate solution for Linux besides
shelling out for Mathematica, I'm all ears.

(Sorry if this is inane; I don't have the bandwith to search the
help-octave archive manually.)

Thanks!

-Josh



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