Re: source-ing files vs. entering on cmd line?

[Mario Storti]

>>>>> On Tue, 17 Nov 1998 14:39:49 -0600 (CST), 
>>>>>      "John W. Eaton" <address@hidden> said:

> On 17-Nov-1998, Daniel Friedman <address@hidden> wrote:
> | I am running Octave version 2.0.13.  Suppose I start Octave while in
> | directory 'foo', and I have a file in ./bar/mstuff.m I wish to run, 
> | to declare a bunch of special functions at the beginning of a particular
> | session.  Without adding the 'bar' directory to LOADPATH, since I need
> | the bar directory only once, is there a way to specify to octave where to
> | look for mstuff.m just one time?  If I could enter "bar/mstuff" on the
> | command line, that would be great, but this of course doesn't work.

> The reason that you can't do that is that there is no way for Octave
> to know that what you've typed is not a division expression.

> | Do
> | I have to change to the bar directory, run mstuff, and then change back
> | where I was?
> | 
> | I tried source("bar/mstuff"), and this executes without error, but the
> | functions defined in mstuff are not remembered by Octave for later use. 

> As Mario Storti noted, you need to give the full name of the file:

>   source ("bar/mstuff.m");

> That you don't get an error when the file name is wrong looks like a
> bug.  I think the following patch should fix the problem.

> Thanks,

> jwe

Well. Now, I see that I found the correct answer by pure
'serendipity'.

>From the WordNet dictionary:

> The noun serendipity has 1 sense (no senses from tagged texts)
>                                    
> 1. serendipity -- (accidental sagacity; the faculty of making
> fortunate discoveries of things you were not looking for) .

Mario