if (line == null || !line.startsWith(LENGTH)) {
            throw new OctaveParseException
		("Expected <" + LENGTH + "> got <" + line + ">. ");
       }
        final int length = Integer.parseInt(line.substring(LENGTH.length()));
	// only used during conversion

        final Map<String, OctaveObject> data =
	    new HashMap<String, OctaveObject>();

        for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) {
            // # name: elemmatrix
	    // Work around differences in number of line feeds 
	    // in octave 3.4 and 3.6
	    // keep reading until line is non-empty
            do {
                line = OctaveIO.readerReadLine(reader);
            } while ("".equals(line));
            if (!line.startsWith(NAME)) {
                throw new OctaveParseException
		    ("Expected <" + NAME + "> got <" + line + ">. ");
            }
            final String subname = line.substring(NAME.length());