From help-octave-request at bevo dot che dot wisc dot edu  Thu Oct 19 01:31:44 1995
Subject: Can't interrupt Octave, and some sugestions.
From: John Eaton <jwe at bevo dot che dot wisc dot edu>
To: Joao Cardoso <jcardoso at bart dot inescn dot pt>
Cc: help-octave at bevo dot che dot wisc dot edu
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 1995 01:31:43 -0500

Joao Cardoso <jcardoso at bart dot inescn dot pt> wrote:

: The first time I hit the DEL key, sending a SIGINT, everything goes OK;
: however, the second and subsequent times, it does not work. If I am really
: in trouble I must generate a core dump (CTRL-\).

: Will this be corrected in the next release?

Yes, Octave now uses the POSIX signal handling functions if they are
available.  It no longer mixes the old-style signal and the POSIX
interface.  I believe that this fixes this problem, at least on Linux
systems (where it has been reported before).

: (OK, I don't ask when will it be issued :)

You can ask, but for a while at least the answer will be `even I don't
know'.

: Another (related?) problem is how to put a process in the background using
: octave's `system'. A SIGCHLD signal handler is not setup, I generate lots of
: `defunct' process.

This item is currently in the PROJECTS file:

  * Catch SIGCHLD for process death (e.g., to know if gnuplot has crashed).

In the next release, there will be better ways of starting
subprocesses and a waitpid() function.

: Still another question: How to disable the builtins? Could't first
: the .m files be scanned and if none if found, only then the builtins
: would be called?  In this way, one could personalize some items, and
: eventually modify/correct others. An example is the gnuplot `set'
: command. I want to use _my_ own, and still use all my software that
: already uses the builtin `set'. An alias, perhaps?

This item is currently in the PROJECTS file:

  * Add a command that works like bash's `builtin' command.

I think this would solve your problem, though I've not given a lot of
thought to how to implement this yet.

: A suggestion: I have lots of data files organized in subdirectories,
: and I have create in .octaverc a variable called DATADIR, which
: 'points' to the top of the subdirectories tree using the LOADPATH
: syntax. I then use:
: 	file = file_in_path (DATADIR,"waveform.data");
: 	cmd = sprintf("load %s", file);
: 	eval(cmd);
: and I don't have to worry where the file actualy is.
: Couldn't this be the default behaviour for load? I think it is nice...

Maybe, though I think it can be confusing too.  Maybe I'll add it as
an option for compatibility with Matlab, which I belive also works
like this (though if I remember correctly, it uses the MATLABPATH).

: Another question: why doesn't pause() works if octave in invoked
: non-interactively? (Exactly because this, will you answer!). I have
: just tried to put a `#!/usr/local/bin/octave -q' on top of a .m
: file, and invoking the .m file directly, and pause(10) didn't work.

Hmm.  I supose it should work in all cases if it has a valid
argument.  With no arguments, it should probably only pause if it is
running interactively (otherwise Octave would be stuck waiting for
input).

: And at last: why the name octave? (excuse my ignorance).

There is a bit on this in the Preface to the manual.

jwe