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Re: Static Variables (was: issue with user preferences)


From: John W. Eaton
Subject: Re: Static Variables (was: issue with user preferences)
Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2002 18:26:25 -0600

On  2-Nov-2002, Quentin Spencer <address@hidden> wrote:

| For what it's worth, I believe the Matlab variable type "persistent" is 
| equivalent to a static variable (calling it "static" would have been too 
| easy for them).

As most people can probably guess, I'm not a big fan of many of the
MathWorks' decisions about the design of Matlab, but in this case, I
think "persistent" is really a better word than "static".  When I hear
"static variable" it sounds wrong -- wouldn't a static variable be a
"variable" that doesn't change (i.e., is constant)?  Persistent
describes what is happening more clearly.  OTOH, lots of people
(though maybe not Matlab users) have been exposed to C/C++ now, and
understand what "static" means, so why use a different term?

| I first used this about a year ago when working for an 
| employer who insisted on Matlab (version 6 I believe). If someone can 
| verify that this is in fact identical to a "static" in Octave, it 
| shouldn't be difficult to add.

The docs on the MathWorks web site seem to indicate that they are
the same, and yes, it is trivial to add persistent as another way of
saying static.

Here is a patch, for the current CVS.  It will probably apply OK to
other versions of Octave, but if not, it should be pretty easy to see
how to adapt for any version of Octave that already has static.

jwe


2002-11-11  John W. Eaton  <address@hidden>

        * octave.gperf: Allow "persistent" as a synonym for static.


Index: src/octave.gperf
===================================================================
RCS file: /usr/local/cvsroot/octave/src/octave.gperf,v
retrieving revision 1.8
diff -u -r1.8 octave.gperf
--- src/octave.gperf    26 Sep 2002 21:32:07 -0000      1.8
+++ src/octave.gperf    12 Nov 2002 00:18:40 -0000
@@ -66,6 +66,7 @@
 gsplot, PLOT, gsplot_kw
 if, IF, if_kw
 otherwise, OTHERWISE, otherwise_kw
+persistent, STATIC, static_kw
 replot, PLOT, replot_kw
 return, FUNC_RET, return_kw
 static, STATIC, static_kw



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