From octave-sources-request at bevo dot che dot wisc dot edu  Mon Dec 13 04:16:40 1999
Subject: octave-var.el: load numbers from an Emacs buffer into Octave
From: Stephen Eglen <stephen at cogsci dot ed dot ac dot uk>
To: octave-sources at bevo dot che dot wisc dot edu
Date: Mon, 13 Dec 1999 10:16:32 GMT

;; octave-var.el --- Load numbers from an Emacs buffer into an octave variable.
;;
;; Example:
;; Let's say that you have an Emacs buffer containing the following text:
;;
;; 1 3 4 
;; 2 5 6
;;
;; and you want this array stored in an octave variable, x.  You could
;; of course cut out the relevant region, save the region in a
;; temporary file and then use aload() to load the data into octave.
;; This elisp function does exactly that, saving you the trouble of
;; making the temporary file.
;;
;; Simply put the mark at the start of the array (at the 1), point at
;; the end of the array (after 6) and then call M-x octave-var.  You
;; are prompted for the name of the octave variable to store the array
;; in.  The data is then loaded into the inferior octave process.
;;
;; Small bug - make sure your inferior octave process is running first,
;; otherwise it doesn't work (not sure why yet).

(defun octave-var (beg end)
  "Load the current region of numbers into an octave variable.
Prompts for a variable name.  If none is given, it uses a default
variable name e (for Emacs)."
  (interactive "r")
  (let ( (tmp-file "/tmp/octvar00")
	 cmd
	 var)
    (write-region beg end tmp-file)

    ;; Decide on the variable name to use in Octave.
    (setq var (read-string "variable name (default e): "))
    (if (equal var "") (setq var "e"))

    ;; Create the aload command to send to octave.
    ;; x = aload("/tmp/oc-1");
    (setq cmd (concat var " = aload(\"" tmp-file "\");"))

    ;; Send the command to the octave process.
    (with-temp-buffer
      (insert cmd)
      (octave-send-region (point-min) (point-max)) 
      )
    ))