Re: New format() options "uppercase"|"lowercase"

[Kai Torben Ohlhus]

On 10/15/19 1:38 AM, Rik wrote:
> All,
> 
> I have changed format so that it is Matlab-compatible by default.  This
> meant treating the arguments to format in a case insensitive manner.  As
> such, the Octave extensions 'short E', 'long E', 'short G', 'long G' no
> longer change the case of the 'e|E' in exponential notation.
> 
> Instead, there are now two new options to format for which I will quote
> from the documentation:
> 
>      The following two options affect the display of scientific and hex
>      notations.
> 
>      'lowercase (default)'
>           Use a lowercase 'e' for the exponent character in scientific
>           notation and lowercase 'a-f' for the hex digits representing
>           10-15.
> 
>      'uppercase'
>           Use an uppercase 'E' for the exponent character in scientific
>           notation and uppercase 'A-F' for the hex digits representing
>           10-15.
>  
> See https://hg.savannah.gnu.org/hgweb/octave/rev/bea2823affa4.
> 
> --Rik
> 

Dear Rik,

Thank you for this improvement, I just tried it out and like it =)

My following examples might be caused by misunderstanding the new
options.  In a fresh Octave session, without custom settings regarding
the format, I get:

octave:1> [FORMAT, FORMATSPACING, UPPERCASE] = format
FORMAT = short
FORMATSPACING = loose
UPPERCASE = lowercase

octave:2> format long e uppercase
octave:3> [FORMAT, FORMATSPACING, UPPERCASE] = format
FORMAT = longe
FORMATSPACING = loose
UPPERCASE = lowercase   % "uppercase" ignored without error/warning?


octave:4> format long uppercase
error: format: unrecognized option 'long uppercase'

% Does the order matter?


octave:5> format uppercase
octave:6> [FORMAT, FORMATSPACING, UPPERCASE] = format
FORMAT = longe
FORMATSPACING = loose
UPPERCASE = uppercase

% Above is what I expected to obtain by both calls:
%   format long e uppercase
%   format uppercase long e

octave:7> format
octave:8> [FORMAT, FORMATSPACING, UPPERCASE] = format
FORMAT = short
FORMATSPACING = loose
UPPERCASE = uppercase

% Calling "format" without arguments and return values should reset the
default, but isn't that "UPPERCASE = lowercase"?

When looking at the test cases, I think those options must be called one
by one, right?  In this case I wished to receive errors for my stupid
input, rather than silent ignorance.  And the resetting of the default
state is surprising to me.

Anyways this new type is a much more intuitive syntax than "longE" and
"longe".

Kai