Re: misbehavior in Octave 2.9.4 for OS/2

[Dushan Mitrovich]

"Steven Levine" <address@hidden> wrote:
>In <address@hidden>, on 06/16/06
>   at 08:37 AM, address@hidden (Dushan Mitrovich) said:
>
> Hi,
> 
> As both an eCS/OS2 user and sometime Octave user, perhaps I can help get
> you started.

Hi Steven,

That's terrific.  I'd much appreciate help from someone who's a foot in
each camp.

>> Yesterday I downloaded version 2.9.4 compiled for OS/2 by Dmitry Froloff
>> <http://froloff.homeip.net/zips/octave-2.9.4-bin.zip>, and installed it.
>> My OS is eComStation 1.2, the current version of OS/2.
>
> First, be aware that Dmitry's build is very new and very lightly tested.
> The good news is now that eCS/OS2 has a capable gcc build chain, the
> patches are minimal and unobtrusive.  Over time they might be integrated
> into the Octave sources.
> 
> It's on my list to evaluate the build in more detail, but to date, all
> I've had time for is to review the patches.

That's good to hear.

>>   When defined from the command line for a vector 'a = 0:pi/10:2*pi' it
>
> Just to clarify the terminology, defining a function is not the same as
> invoking a function.  The former just records the function defintion for
> later use.  Something like
>
>  a = mx + b
>
> is just an expression.
>
>  a = f (x)
>
> is an expression that invokes a function.
>
>>   Is this normal, or a consequence of my function definition?
>
> It is normal, in the sense that expression results always display unless
> suppressed by terminating the expression with a semi-colon.
>
>>   error: no such file,
>>'I:/octave/I:\octave/scripts/deprecated/is_vector.m'
>
> Octave is from the unix world.  You need to use forward slashes in your
> settings.  I suspect you need to update your LOADPATH setting in
> octave.ini.

Sounds like a reasonable idea, except there is no 'octave.ini'.  Probably
its role performed by '.octaverc', two lines of whose lines read

  LOADPATH  = sprintf ("./;%s/scripts//;%s/dlfcn;%s/matlab//;%s/sourceforge//", 
oct_home, oct_home, oct_home, oct_home );
  INFO_FILE = sprintf ("%s/doc/octave", oct_home);

How should I modify these?

>>   and discovered that asking for 'sinc(1)' kept producing the exact same
>>   message.  Only after I quit Octave, then restarted it, did it recog-
>>   nize the change and produce a different message.
>
> This is either a problem in Dmitry's port or with your EDITOR setting.
> What is supposed to happen is that Octave is supposed to notice the
> timestamp change and recompile the .m file.  Since E is a PM application,
> octave may have considered the edits complete before you were actually
> done.  Try setting EDITOR to tedit.exe or some other VIO mode editor.  If
> the behavior persists, I would discuss the issue with Dmitry.

I'll try my favorite editor, Boxer.   

> As a workaround you can tell Octave to forget the function with clear.
>
>>   between Octave's path references using a forward slash '/' and OS/2's
>>   using a backward slash '\', but I'm not sure how to resolve that.
>
> You need to use forward slashes in your configuration settings.

Okay.

>>        SYS0003: The system cannot find the path specified
>>        < a one-line definition >
>
> This may be related to your settings or it may be a problem with the port.
> SYS0003 means path not found.
>
>>        warning: help: Texinfo formatting filter exiting abnormally
>>        warning: help: raw Texinfo source of help text follows...
>
>>   except that for 'help edit_history' there are an additional two lines:
>
>>        WARNING: terminal is not fully functional:
>>        -   (press RETURN)
>
> You need to correct your TERMCAP/TERMINFO settings.

I'll look into this.

>>   This warning also appears when I ask for 'history 100'.
>
> What happens inside Octave when you ask for help is Octave looks for
> documentation in one of several places.  The documentation is written in
> texi format.  This is run through texi2info (sic) to generate info
> formatted data and info is invoked to display the formatted data.
> 
> What happens when you invoke
> 
>   help -i history
> 
> Does the info formatted documentation display properly?

Here's the message I get:

  SYS1041: The name "info" is not recognized as an
  internal or external command, operable program or batch file.
  error: help: unable to find info
  error: help: you need info 2.18 or later (texinfo 3.12)

which suggests that the program 'info.exe' isn't found.  And sure enough,
the path in config.sys pointed to \emx\usr\share\info instead of its
actual location in \emx\usr\bin.  But when I invoked info.exe from the
command line (or infokey.exe or install-info.exe or makeinfo.exe) all I
got was the (to me) useless message:

  A non-recoverable error occured.  The process ended.

Suggestions?  Thanks for the help.

- Dushan