function LTrim(str)
        /***
                PURPOSE: Remove leading blanks from our string.
                IN: str - the string we want to LTrim

                RETVAL: An LTrimmed string!
        ***/
        {
                var whitespace = new String(" \t\n\r");

                var s = new String(str);

                if (whitespace.indexOf(s.charAt(0)) != -1) {
                    // We have a string with leading blank(s)...

                    var j=0, i = s.length;

                    // Iterate from the far left of string until we
                    // don't have any more whitespace...
                    while (j < i && whitespace.indexOf(s.charAt(j)) != -1)
                        j++;


                    // Get the substring from the first non-whitespace
                    // character to the end of the string...
                    s = s.substring(j, i);
                }

                return s;
        }