is eval really needed?

on this line :core/modules/locale/locale.module : 333

$plural_indexes[$langcode][$count] = @eval('return intval(' . $plural_formulas[$langcode]['formula'] . ');');

do we really need an eval for this? can we not use an numeric expression evaluator?

http://code.google.com/p/wikiplot/source/browse/trunk/src/PlotClass/eval...

would that not be safer?

mike