Behaviour of 'global', differences Octave/Matlab?

[Andreas Romeyke]

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Hi all,

I am trying[1] to run a Matlab toolbox (eeglab[2]) under Octave 2.9.9
and Octave stops in the main-function eeglab() with following error:

error: can't make function parameter `EEG' global

error: evaluating global command near line 64, column 1

error: near line 64 of file
`/SCR/svn_work/eeglab-devel-5.03/eeglab5.03/functions/eeg_global.m'

error: called from `eeglab' in file
`/SCR/svn_work/eeglab-devel-5.03/eeglab5.03/eeglab.m'


The original developers of the tool box uses an external m-file called
eeg_global.m with

% global variables

% ----------------

global EEG;             % current dataset

global ALLEEG;          % all datasets

global CURRENTSET;      % current set index

global ALLCOM;          % all commands (history)

global LASTCOM;         % last command

global STUDY;

global CURRENTSTUDY;


This file is called in the eeglab.m (around line 1700):

[..]

eeglab_options;

if nargin == 1 &&  strcmp(onearg, 'redraw')

    if evalin('base', 'exist(''EEG'')', '0') == 1

        evalin('base', 'warning off; eeg_global; warning on;');

    end;

end;

eeg_global;


% for the history function

% ------------------------

comtmp = 'warning off MATLAB:mir_warning_variable_used_as_function';

evalin('base'  , comtmp, '');

evalin('caller', comtmp, '');

    

evalin('base', 'eeg_global;');

if nargin < 1 || exist('EEG') ~= 1

    clear global EEG ALLEEG CURRENTSET ALLCOM LASTCOM STUDY;

    CURRENTSTUDY = 0;

    eeg_global;

    EEG = eeg_emptyset;

    eegh('[ALLEEG EEG CURRENTSET ALLCOM] = eeglab;');

    if get(0, 'screendepth') <= 8

        disp('Warning: screen color depth too low, some colors will be
inaccurate in time-frequency plots');

    end;

end;

[..]

Does it means the Octave does not allow making variables global by
calling external m-file? What will be a workaround with less changes
as possible to the original code? Any additional hints?

Bye Andreas

[1] ignoring the GUI stuff by using wrappers...
[2] eeglab is a free toolbox to process eeg-data, the main-site is:
http://sccn.ucsd.edu/eeglab/, we develop a testsuite to make a
conversion to Octave possible (at least one or two years), see
https://svnserv.cbs.mpg.de/eeglab

- --
Software Developer / Dipl. Inform. (FH)
Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences
Department of Psychology
Stephanstr. 1a, 04103 Leipzig, Germany

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