Re: exist, configure, doc2tex and \index

[Daniel J S. <dan...@ie...>]

Hans-Bernhard Br=F6ker wrote:
> Petr Mikulik wrote:
>=20
>>Few minor things:
>>
>>1. In ./configure, shouldn't strings "(EXPERIMENTAL)" be removed now? W=
on't=20
>>be "nice" for 4.2.
>=20
>=20
> It would be even less nice to lie about the maturity of those options.=20
> Yes, those features are experimental, and they should be marked as such.
>=20
>=20
>>2. Gnuplot supports both exists('a') and exist('a'), but documents only=
 one=20
>>of them. As it was me who made this confusion, I would propose to keep =
only=20
>>exist('a').

Not sure if matching with Octave is that important.  The more grammatical=
ly correct syntax would probably be "exists('a')", because the argument i=
s always singular.  In the case of Octave, the contents could be plural, =
i.e., an array.

Both is fine, but it is usually good to not have functions with nearly id=
entical syntax.  I see there is a "word" and "words" which aren't the sam=
e, in this case the function is a noun as opposed to a verb tense.  Not t=
oo concerned, but you can see where a tad of confusion could arise from e=
xist, exists, word, words.

BTW, this help entry is not very good:

gnuplot> help show functions
 The `show functions` command lists all user-defined functions and their
 definitions.

 Syntax:
       show functions

 For information about the definition and usage of functions in `gnuplot`=
,
 please see `expressions`.
 See also
 splines as user defined functions (spline.dem)
 and
 use of functions and complex variables for airfoils (airfoil.dem).

First, if we want to stay with this, could the visual formatting be a lit=
tle nicer?  I.e.,

 please see `expressions`.

 See also
      splines as user defined functions (spline.dem)
 and
      use of functions and complex variables for airfoils (airfoil.dem).

Second, it should really be "see `expressions functions`".

Third, do we really need to refer to spline.dem (there is no help entry "=
splines as user defined functions") or airfoil.dem (there is no help entr=
y "user of functions...")?  There are many other demos that use functions=
 now I'm guessing.

Fourth, if we want to keep those references, why would there need to be r=
eturns in the sentence?  Couldn't it just be inline "See also spline.dem =
for examples of user-defined functions or airfoil.dem for examples of fun=
ctions and complex variables."?


> OK for '-', but '_' may need closer inspections.  People have abused '_=
'=20
> to tweak multi-word index entries and help nodes in somewhat random way=
s=20
> for a while now.  I really don't think we need stuff like plot_datafile=
=20
> as an index entry.

Yes, I'm not a fan of the underscores as a help index.  In fact, we may a=
t some point be able to just drop the underscore and leave it as "plot da=
tafile" if there is no ambiguity.

Dan