Re: call: how many parameters?

[Petr M. <mi...@ph...>]

> > Currently, inside bla.gp called like
> >
> > 	call "bla.gp" one two 3 4
> >
> > it is not possible to determine how many parameters were passed into it.
> > The only way seems to be a global variable like
> >
> > 	params=4; call "bla.gp" one two 3 4
> >
> > and to use
> >
> > 	if (defined(params) && params==4) ...

> Why that complicated?  What's wrong with making the number of parameters
> the first parameter, i.e.
> 	call "bla.gp" 4 one two 3 4
> ?

That's complicated for users. You neither do this in your C programs.

> OTOH, what you really need would be a "was parameter number <n> passed
> in by the caller?" kind of test, i.e. the equivalent of the Bourne
> shell standard phrase
>
> 	if [ "x$5" != "x" ]

Here it will be    if ($# > 5) ...

> > I propose to add "variable"  $#  which will be set to number of available
> > $0, $1, ...
>
> Please keep in mind that '#' is our comment character.

So, I've done it, see the enclosed patch (it's very small). Seems to work
fine. (And it doesn't clash with # as comment char.)

I'll add it shortly, unless there are some complains. New section of NEWS is
to be added.


BTW, is there to be a split of source code branches into gnuplot 4.0.1 (for
a potential bug-fix release) and gnuplot 4.1 with new cool features
available at "Patches"?

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PM