Re: plot problem with 3.2.3 on Windows

[Ben Abbott]

On Dec 10, 2009, at 2:24 AM, John W. Eaton wrote:

> On 10-Dec-2009, Benjamin Lindner wrote:
> 
> | > A student of mine working with Octave 3.2.3 on Windows (that's all i know)
> | > reported to me that he wasn't able to plot, and if he tried 'help plot' he
> | > got the following error message:
> | > 
> | > octave-3.2.3.exe:2:C:\Octave\3.2.3_gcc-4.4.0\bin
> | > > > help plot
> | > error: invalid use of script in index expression
> 
> This kind of error usually means that you have a script .m file in the
> path that is being used instead of a function or variable somehow.
> Since a script can't produce a value, it can't be used as an index to
> another variable or an argument in a function call.
> 
> | > error:   C:\Octave\3.2.3_gcc-4.4.0\share\octave\3.2.3\m\strings\strsplit.m
> | > at li
> | > ne 49, column 13
> 
> Looking at this line, it's not obvious to me how this error could
> happen.
> 
> jwe

The student can restore the path to its default and then try "help plot" again.

        restoredefaultpath
        help plot

If that works, then he/she can examine his/her path when octave starts to 
determine what path elements local to their setup precede Octave's default, and 
search those directories for scripts/functions are have the same names as an 
Octave core function.

Ben