def fortFloat(s):
    """
    Convert a string representation of a floating point value to a float,
    allowing for some of the peculiarities of allowable Fortran representations.
    """
    s = s.strip()
    s = s.replace('D', 'E').replace('d', 'e')
    s = s.replace('E ', 'E+').replace('e ', 'e+')
    return float(s)