Re: Plot function not working

[Mike Miller]

On Fri, Aug 19, 2016 at 12:36:46 -0400, Nicholas Jankowski wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 19, 2016 at 11:52 AM, Mike Miller <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> > On Fri, Aug 19, 2016 at 00:28:41 -0700, ammc wrote:
> > > Hi there,
> > >
> > > I recently installed Octave on Win10, and the plot function is not
> > working
> > > at all. When I enter a=[1 2 3] followed by plot(a), no plot window
> > launches.
> > > I get the error:
> > >
> > > error: 'x2' undefined near line 2 column 9
> > > error: called from
> > >     length at line 2 column 2
> > >     __plt_get_axis_arg__ at line 59 column 8
> > >     plot at line 210 column 23
> > > error: evaluating argument list element number 1
> > > error: called from
> > >     length at line 2 column 2
> > >     __plt_get_axis_arg__ at line 59 column 8
> > >     plot at line 210 column 23
> >
> > The error message looks like you had defined your own length.m function
> > or script file. The builtin length function would not show the error
> > message above because it is not a .m file.
> >
> > Watch out when naming your files that they do not conflict with the
> > names of builtin functions because these kinds of mysterious errors will
> > happen again.
> >
> > --
> > mike
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Help-octave mailing list
> > address@hidden
> > https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-octave
> >
> 
> 
> second or third time that has popped up very recently. How much overhead
> would a 'potentially unintended shadowing' warning consume?

Already exists:

  warning: function ./length.m shadows a built-in function

It appears every time the function is added to the load path (e.g. when
Octave starts, when changing directories, calling addpath, or pkg load).

It is *not* called every time the shadowed function is called, that
would be very annoying.

And it is apparently not called when a new function or script file shows
up in a directory that is already on the load path. That might be worth
reporting as an enhancement.

-- 
mike