Re: doubt in char

[David Bateman]

Quentin Spencer wrote:

> Robert A. Macy wrote:
>
> > Makes sense, but
> >
> >  
> >
> > > > which char.m
> > > >     
> >
> > returns the same file I sent the copy of. 
> > I didn't find a different one.
> >  
> but "which char" (without the .m) on my version of Octave returns:
> char is a built-in function
>
> > Just curious...which filename is not as intuitive as where
> > filename.  Is this a carry over from Matlab compatibility?
> >  
>
> Yes, but Matlab got its "which" command from Unix. The which command 
> is still a commonly used command on Unix and Linux systems now, so I 
> suspect that since Octave was developed on those systems, it would 
> have probably ended up with the same command even had it developed in 
> a world without Matlab. True, the command is less intuitive than 
> "where"--maybe there are historical Unix reasons for it.
>
> -Quentin
You can have several versions of the same command in different places in 
the path. So "which" is indeed more appropriate since as long as the 
function runs, who cares "where" it is :-)

D.

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