Re: Wishlist (Was: Re: The future of Octave)

[Johan Kullstam]

Kevin Straight <address@hidden> writes:

> One feature I could use that has NOTHING to do with GUI (which I agree
> belongs on the other list) would be a really good macro expansion
> facility, which would be a real convenience when scripting.

you might want to look at matlisp.  it's essentially lapack added to
common-lisp (either cmucl or franz allegro).  if you want the power of
macros, nothing i've seen can do macros as powerful as common-lisp.

> I would want to be able to define multi-line macros with arguments.  I
> would also want a conditional directives (like in the C preprocessor) and
> the ability to include other script files (like the C include statement).  
> 
> Any idea how hard this would be?  Of course, maybe Octave already has
> something like this, and I'm just missing it...

i think the real problem is that the matlab/octave language is too
brittle for really good macro action.  to support macros, it helps to
have a very simple syntax (like lisp does).

-- 
J o h a n  K u l l s t a m
address@hidden
Don't Fear the Penguin!



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