From bug-octave-request at bevo dot che dot wisc dot edu Tue Sep 16 08:06:20 1997 Subject: Unidentified subject! From: "Richard J. Shaw" To: bug-octave at bevo dot che dot wisc dot edu Date: Tue, 16 Sep 1997 14:09:38 +0100 To: bug-octave at bevo dot che dot wisc dot edu Subject: rand("string", n) confusion Bug report for Octave 2.0.9 configured for i586-pc-linux-gnu Description: ----------- This is a much more minor bug report than I thought it was going to be! rand(string, number) seems to accept any string as its first parameter, rather than just "seed". Only the latter appears to produce the expected effect. In particular, rand("SEED", n) has no apparent effect but a naive user (i.e. me!) might misinterpret the output of "help rand", specifically "rand (SEED, N) -- set seed" to indicate that an upper-case spelling was appropriate (despite several years of experience of Matlab help pages!). I have now discovered that "help -i rand" gives the correct information but I report this phenomenon for the additional reason that Octave also accepts such typos as rand("seeed", n) without warning and without (the expected) effect. Repeat-By: --------- octave:1> rand("SEED", 123456) octave:2> rand(5, 1) ans = 0.79071 0.97612 0.50294 0.74812 0.32937 octave:3> rand("SEED", 123456) octave:4> rand(5, 1) ans = 0.871324 0.041129 0.320971 0.615052 0.247643 Configuration (please do not edit this section): ----------------------------------------------- uname output: Linux gj3 2.0.15 #3 Tue Nov 19 15:27:46 GMT 1996 i486 configure opts: --disable-shared --disable-dl --disable-shl Fortran compiler: g77 FFLAGS: -O F2C: F2CFLAGS: FLIBS: -lf2c -lm -L/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i486-linux/2.7.2 -lm -lgcc -lc CPPFLAGS: INCFLAGS: -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/local/include/octave-2.0.9 C compiler: gcc, version 2.7.2 CFLAGS: -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -mieee-fp -O CPICFLAG: -fPIC C++ compiler: c++, version 2.7.2 CXXFLAGS: -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -fno-implicit-templates -mieee-fp -O CXXPICFLAG: -fPIC LDFLAGS: -static LIBFLAGS: -L/usr/local/lib RLD_FLAG: -Xlinker -rpath -Xlinker /usr/local/lib CXXLIBS: -lstdc++ -lm -L/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i486-linux/2.7.2 -lstdc++ -lm -lgcc -lc -lgcc TERMLIBS: -lncurses LIBS: LEXLIB: LIBPLPLOT: LIBDLFCN: DEFS: -DOCTAVE_SOURCE=1 -DSEPCHAR=':' -DSEPCHAR_STR=":" -DUSE_GNU_INFO=1 -DUSE_READLINE=1 -DF77_APPEND_UNDERSCORE=1 -DSIZEOF_SHORT=2 -DSIZEOF_INT=4 -DSIZEOF_LONG=4 -DHAVE_ALLOCA_H=1 -DHAVE_ALLOCA=1 -DSTDC_HEADERS=1 -DHAVE_DIRENT_H=1 -DTIME_WITH_SYS_TIME=1 -DHAVE_SYS_WAIT_H=1 -DHAVE_ASSERT_H=1 -DHAVE_CURSES_H=1 -DHAVE_FCNTL_H=1 -DHAVE_FLOAT_H=1 -DHAVE_GRP_H=1 -DHAVE_LIMITS_H=1 -DHAVE_MEMORY_H=1 -DHAVE_NAN_H=1 -DHAVE_NCURSES_H=1 -DHAVE_PWD_H=1 -DHAVE_STDLIB_H=1 -DHAVE_STRING_H=1 -DHAVE_SYS_PARAM_H=1 -DHAVE_SYS_RESOURCE_H=1 -DHAVE_SYS_STAT_H=1 -DHAVE_SYS_TIME_H=1 -DHAVE_SYS_TIMES_H=1 -DHAVE_SYS_TYPES_H=1 -DHAVE_SYS_UTSNAME_H=1 -DHAVE_TERMCAP_H=1 -DHAVE_TERMIO_H=1 -DHAVE_TERMIOS_H=1 -DHAVE_UNISTD_H=1 -DHAVE_VARARGS_H=1 -DHAVE_ATEXIT=1 -DHAVE_BCOPY=1 -DHAVE_BZERO=1 -DHAVE_DUP2=1 -DHAVE_ENDGRENT=1 -DHAVE_ENDPWENT=1 -DHAVE_EXECVP=1 -DHAVE_FCNTL=1 -DHAVE_FORK=1 -DHAVE_GETCWD=1 -DHAVE_GETEGID=1 -DHAVE_GETEUID=1 -DHAVE_GETGID=1 -DHAVE_GETGRENT=1 -DHAVE_GETGRGID=1 -DHAVE_GETGRNAM=1 -DHAVE_GETHOSTNAME=1 -DHAVE_GETPGRP=1 -DHAVE_GETPID=1 -DHAVE_GETPPID=1 -DHAVE_GETPWENT=1 -DHAVE_GETPWNAM=1 -DHAVE_GETPWUID=1 -DHAVE_GETUID=1 -DHAVE_GETWD=1 -DHAVE_LSTAT=1 -DHAVE_MEMMOVE=1 -DHAVE_MKDIR=1 -DHAVE_MKFIFO=1 -DHAVE_ON_EXIT=1 -DHAVE_PIPE=1 -DHAVE_PUTENV=1 -DHAVE_RENAME=1 -DHAVE_RINDEX=1 -DHAVE_RMDIR=1 -DHAVE_SETGRENT=1 -DHAVE_SETPWENT=1 -DHAVE_SETVBUF=1 -DHAVE_SIGACTION=1 -DHAVE_SIGPENDING=1 -DHAVE_SIGPROCMASK=1 -DHAVE_SIGSUSPEND=1 -DHAVE_STAT=1 -DHAVE_STRCASECMP=1 -DHAVE_STRDUP=1 -DHAVE_STRERROR=1 -DHAVE_STRNCASECMP=1 -DHAVE_TEMPNAM=1 -DHAVE_UMASK=1 -DHAVE_UNLINK=1 -DHAVE_USLEEP=1 -DHAVE_VFPRINTF=1 -DHAVE_VSPRINTF=1 -DHAVE_WAITPID=1 -DHAVE_PROGRAM_INVOCATION_NAME=1 -DHAVE_LIBM=1 -DHAVE_FINITE=1 -DHAVE_ISNAN=1 -DHAVE_ISINF=1 -DHAVE_ACOSH=1 -DHAVE_ASINH=1 -DHAVE_ATANH=1 -DHAVE_ERF=1 -DHAVE_ERFC=1 -DHAVE_ST_BLKSIZE=1 -DHAVE_ST_BLOCKS=1 -DHAVE_ST_RDEV=1 -DHAVE_TZNAME=1 -DHAVE_GR_PASSWD=1 -DRETSIGTYPE=void -DSYS_SIGLIST_DECLARED=1 -DHAVE_SYS_SIGLIST=1 -DHAVE_POSIX_SIGNALS=1 -DHAVE_GETRUSAGE=1 -DHAVE_TIMES=1 -DGNUPLOT_HAS_MULTIPLOT=1 -DGNUPLOT_HAS_FRAMES=1 User-preferences (please do not edit this section): -------------------------------------------------- EDITOR = "emacs" IMAGEPATH = ".:/usr/local/share/octave/2.0.9/imagelib//" INFO_FILE = "/usr/local/info/octave.info" LOADPATH = ".:/usr/local/libexec/octave/site/oct/i586-pc-linux-gnu//:/usr/local/share/octave/site/m//:/usr/local/libexec/octave/2.0.9/oct/i586-pc-linux-gnu//:/usr/local/share/octave/2.0.9/m//" OCTAVE_VERSION = "2.0.9" PAGER = "less -e" PS1 = "\\s:\\#> " PS2 = "> " automatic_replot = 1 whitespace_in_literal_matrix = "traditional" default_save_format = "mat-binary" do_fortran_indexing = 1 empty_list_elements_ok = 1 eps = 2.22045e-16 gnuplot_binary = "gnuplot" ignore_function_time_stamp = "system" implicit_str_to_num_ok = 1 ok_to_lose_imaginary_part = "warn" output_max_field_width = 10 output_precision = 5 page_screen_output = 0 prefer_column_vectors = 0 prefer_zero_one_indexing = 1 print_answer_id_name = 1 print_empty_dimensions = 0 propagate_empty_matrices = 1 resize_on_range_error = 1 return_last_computed_value = 0 save_precision = 17 silent_functions = 0 split_long_rows = 1 treat_neg_dim_as_zero = 0 warn_assign_as_truth_value = 1 warn_comma_in_global_decl = 1 warn_divide_by_zero = 1