From help-octave-request at bevo dot che dot wisc dot edu  Sat Jan  6 17:22:28 2001
Subject: path() & strrep() notes/fix
From: Marc Compere <CompereM at asme dot org>
To: help-octave at bevo dot che dot wisc dot edu
Date: Sat, 6 Jan 2001 17:22:26 -0600

Octave 2.1.32 users,

	Upon compiling octave 2.1.32 on a fresh Redhat 7.0 linux system, I noticed 
the Matlab compatibility options (`octave --braindead`) were causing the path 
command to output numbers instead of strings.

The original problem:
	The problem seemed to come from strrep's output (from octave's own path.m) 
combined with the switch define_all_return_values=1.  This switch is flipped 
when you want Matlab compatibility and execute `octave --braindead` or if 
you've got this switch set in an octaverc or .octaverc file.

The underlying problem:
	Apparantly when define_all_return_values=1 octaves strrep.m returns a matrix 
(of numbers) instead of a string.  This may happen because the return 
value, t, within strrep.m is not defined as a string (early enough?)

A solution:
	Simply declaring the internal variable t as a string immediately after the 
function declaration within strrrep.m seems to fix the problem.  This is how 
/usr/local/share/octave/2.1.32/m/strings/strrep.m looked originally:
	...
	function t = strrep (s, x, y)
	  if (nargin != 3)
	   ...

This is what strrep.m looks like after my fix:
	...
	function t = strrep (s, x, y)
	  t = ""; % initialize t as a string
	  if (nargin != 3)
	   ...


Example output:
	Now the following works properly regardless of whether or not 
define_all_return_values is 1 or 0:
	octave --braindead
	   path(":~/m")
	   path
	   
	   LOADPATH contains the following directories:
	   
	     
	     ~/m
	   
	   ans = []

whereas the second path command above used to return:
	   
	   LOADPATH contains the following directories:
	   
	            10       32       32      126       47      109
	   
	   ans = []



	I'm sure this is an unsophistocated kluge fix and welcome input from anyone 
with a better solution.

Regards,
Marc Compere

-- 
_________________________________________________
 Marc Compere, The University of Texas at Austin
 CompereM at asme dot org, (512)471-7347,   <><
 http://nerdlab.me.utexas.edu/~compere
_________________________________________________



-------------------------------------------------------------
Octave is freely available under the terms of the GNU GPL.

Octave's home on the web:  http://www.octave.org
How to fund new projects:  http://www.octave.org/funding.html
Subscription information:  http://www.octave.org/archive.html
-------------------------------------------------------------