NAME
    abs - absolute value

SYNOPSIS
    abs(x [,eps])

TYPES
    If x is an object of type xx, the function xx_abs has to have
	been defined; this will determine the types for x, eps and
	the returned value.

    For non-object x and eps:

    x		number (real or complex)
    eps		ignored if x is real, nonzero real for complex x,
		defaults to epsilon().

    return	real

DESCRIPTION
    If x is real, returns x if x is positive or zero, -x if x is negative.

    For complex x, returns the multiple of eps nearest or next to nearest
    to the absolute value of x.  The result usually has error less in
    absolute value than abs(eps), but should not exceed 0.75 * abs(eps).

EXAMPLE
    > print abs(3.4), abs(-3.4)
    3.4 3.4

    > print abs(3+4i, 1e-5), abs(4+5i, 1e-5), abs(4+5i, 1e-10)
    5 6.40312 6.4031242374

LIMITS
    none

LIBRARY
    none

SEE ALSO
    cmp, epsilon, hypot, norm, near, obj
