Does anyone have edgetaper function they can share?

[Terry Duell]

Hullo All,
I need to replicate the Matlab edgetaper function.
I am aware that this is one of Octave's missing functions, and wonder if  
anyone has had a go at coding it for Octave but not got around to  
contributing it. If you do have a prototype, or similar, I'd be very  
appreciative if you could make it available.
I haven't been able to track down very much useful information to even  
help me make an attempt, but would certainly have a try, so even a decent  
description of how the function might work would be a help.

Cheers,
--
Regards,
Terry Duell