octave & (v)tcl: read-write through a pipe...

[Stef Pillaert]

Hello,
I'm (still...) working on a GUI in Tcl/Tk (actually, I use vtcl, which makes it
a bit easier to me to write tcl-scripts) for some octave calculations.

I have a little problem, that I don't know to solve (and I'm not sure whether
it is an octave or a Tcl problem...):

I have a Tcl-button to start octave, with the following command:

{set fileID [open "|/usr/local/bin/octave -qfi" r+]
fconfigure $fileID -buffering line
puts $fileID {PS1 = "";fflush(stdout);} 
flush $fileID
puts $fileID {a=1;fflush(stdout);}
flush $fileID}

And a second button, that activates some octave-command:

{puts $fileID "a=10*a;disp(a);fflush(stdout);ŠÜn"
flush $fileID
gets $fileID result}

As you might have guessed, I show the result variable in a label in my Tcl
window.

2 questions:
** In the third line of the first button, I try to remove the
"octave:1>"-prompt. Unfortunately, the first time I hit the second button, I
get "octave:1>10" in the result-label. The next hits on the second button,
result (as intended) in "100","1000", ... (so without the prompt). What am I
doing wrong that the first time I still have the "octave:1>"-prompt?
(Maybe I'm dreaming, but isn't there a command-line option to invoke octave
without the prompt? I can't find it, but I thought I saw it once...?)

**Suppose I manage to get popen2 to work in octave, what would be the best
approach? Starting octave, and let octave start and communicate with my GUI, or
Starting my GUI, and let it start octave and communicate with it (as in the
above example) 
(Or isn't there a real difference between those approaches?...)

Thanks for any advice,

Stef.







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