--- a/src/octave.cc
+++ b/src/octave.cc
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@
 
 #include "lo-error.h"
 #include "str-vec.h"
+#include "sun-utils.h"
 
 #include "builtins.h"
 #include "defaults.h"
@@ -370,19 +371,19 @@
 {
   bind_builtin_variable ("PS1", ">> ");
   bind_builtin_variable ("PS2", "");
-  bind_builtin_variable ("beep_on_error", "true");
+  bind_builtin_variable ("beep_on_error", 1.0);
   bind_builtin_variable ("default_save_format", "mat-binary");
-  bind_builtin_variable ("define_all_return_values", "true");
-  bind_builtin_variable ("do_fortran_indexing", "true");
-  bind_builtin_variable ("empty_list_elements_ok", "true");
-  bind_builtin_variable ("implicit_str_to_num_ok", "true");
-  bind_builtin_variable ("ok_to_lose_imaginary_part", "true");
-  bind_builtin_variable ("page_screen_output", "false");
-  bind_builtin_variable ("prefer_column_vectors", "false");
-  bind_builtin_variable ("prefer_zero_one_indexing", "true");
-  bind_builtin_variable ("print_empty_dimensions", "false");
-  bind_builtin_variable ("treat_neg_dim_as_zero", "true");
-  bind_builtin_variable ("warn_function_name_clash", "false");
+  bind_builtin_variable ("define_all_return_values", 1.0);
+  bind_builtin_variable ("do_fortran_indexing", 1.0);
+  bind_builtin_variable ("empty_list_elements_ok", 1.0);
+  bind_builtin_variable ("implicit_str_to_num_ok", 1.0);
+  bind_builtin_variable ("ok_to_lose_imaginary_part", 1.0);
+  bind_builtin_variable ("page_screen_output", 0.0);
+  bind_builtin_variable ("prefer_column_vectors", 0.0);
+  bind_builtin_variable ("prefer_zero_one_indexing", 1.0);
+  bind_builtin_variable ("print_empty_dimensions", 0.0);
+  bind_builtin_variable ("treat_neg_dim_as_zero", 1.0);
+  bind_builtin_variable ("warn_function_name_clash", 0.0);
   bind_builtin_variable ("whitespace_in_literal_matrix", "traditional");
 }