Re: [OctDev] Re: email not getting through

[Stefan v. d. W. <st...@su...>]

Getting a function's description would be a lot easier if 'help' could
return the string produced by help(func)... Would this be easy to add?

Regards
Stefan

On Wed, Jun 02, 2004 at 07:56:00AM -0400, Paul Kienzle wrote:
> David,
>=20
> I think rebuild() is referring just to rebuilding the doc tie-ins.
>=20
> Keep it simple for now (adding just categorical help to
> octave-forge), but leave room for growth into independent
> packages which can be built from source.
>=20
> - Paul
>=20
> On Jun 2, 2004, at 5:12 AM, David Bateman wrote:
>=20
> >Stefan,
> >
> >If I get this right your function "rebuild()" would build the oct-file=
s
> >in a particular package? At the moment this is rather complex, since
> >you have to first configure octave-forge with the packages=20
> >"configure.add"
> >taken into account, then build the oct-files.
> >
> >One advantage you'll have running from within octave is that you'll
> >have access to a number of built-in variables with lots of the
> >necessary information. You might also like to have a support function
> >"configure()" that does something similar to the current octave-forge
> >configure.base autoconf code, then calls a toolbox specific configure
> >function, and then finally writes out a file that the build process
> >can find (perhaps Makeconf).
> >
> >One problem I see that you'll have is a case like mine where I have=20
> >three
> >versions of octave installed. At the moment I have
> >
> >/usr/bin/octave                (2.1.57)
> >/opt/octave/bin/octave         (CVS)
> >/opt/octave-2.1.50/bin/octave  (2.1.50)
> >
> >In general I have the /usr/bin/octave first in my path, and if I want
> >to work with the CVS I call /opt/octave/bin/octave directly. However,=20
> >your
> >build process will have to take this into account when finding the=20
> >version
> >of mkoctfile to be used. It can't just do "system('mkoctfile=20
> ><file>')", but
> >rather must reference the version of mkoctfile with an absolute path,=20
> >that
> >it must find out somehow..
> >
> >Regards
> >David
> >
> >
> >
> >According to Stefan van der Walt <st...@su...> (on 06/02/04):
> >>If we add enough supporting functions, each package can be distribute=
d
> >>with an install.m file?
> >>
> >>Supporting functions would, for example, be
> >>
> >>add_toolbox(id, description)
> >>add_category(id, description, parent_toolbox)
> >>add_function([category1 category2 ...])
> >>rebuild()
> >>
> >>The install.m file can then be renamed to <package>-install.m and
> >>stored in a directory -- needed for rebuilding the index from scratch
> >>later on.
> >>
> >>Every time a function is added the appropriate toolbox contents.m=20
> >>should
> >>be rebuilt, using the descriptions extracted by an octave function.
> >>What is the current level of regular expression support?  With regula=
r
> >>expressions this problem becomes a lot simpler.
> >>
> >>Comments and ideas?
> >>
> >>Regards
> >>St=E9fan
> >>
> >>Paul Kienzle wrote:
> >>>
> >>>Here are some features that I consider important:
> >>>
> >>>(1) distributed description --- adding a package to the system
> >>>should automatically update the indices to reflect the presence
> >>>of that package.   E.g., adding octave forge should add a number
> >>>of functions to Octave's existing string categories, amongst others.
> >>>An install=3Dtime step is sufficient --- it doesn't need to happen
> >>>every time a directory is added to the path, though it's okay if it
> >>>does so.  A single function can belong to multiple subcategories in
> >>>different toolboxes.
> >>>
> >>>(2) easy syntax --- it is hard to get more minimal than the INDEX
> >>>file format that make_index is using.
> >>>
> >>>(3) minimal tools --- you cannot require python on user
> >>>systems.   For developer systems, the fewer languages
> >>>required the better.  I guess beating Octave's string
> >>>handling into shape so that it is up to the task itself is a bit
> >>>too ambitious.
> >>>
> >>>(4) multiple output targets, including matlab-style contents.m.
> >>>
> >>>I'm sure there's others, but not that I can think of tonight.
> >>>
> >>>- Paul
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>On Jun 1, 2004, at 12:20 PM, Stefan van der Walt wrote:
> >>>
> >>>>Hi Paul
> >>>>
> >>>>I started working on this today.  Wrote a python script similar in
> >>>>functionality to make_index. It uses octave to provide the function
> >>>>descriptions, however -- which means that you can build indeces=20
> >>>>having
> >>>>only a binary distribution available.
> >>>>
> >>>>An example config file looks like this:
> >>>>
> >>>>---
> >>>>
> >>>>octave =3D "/usr/share/octave/2.1.57/m"
> >>>>forge =3D "/usr/share/octave/2.1.57/site/m/octave-forge/"
> >>>>
> >>>>signal {
> >>>> name =3D "Signal Processing Toolbox"
> >>>> add_dirs =3D "signal"
> >>>> add_files =3D "ifft ifft2"
> >>>> unsupported =3D "nosup neithersup"
> >>>> sub =3D "numeric"
> >>>>}
> >>>>
> >>>>numeric {
> >>>> name =3D "Numerical Games"
> >>>> add_dirs =3D "blah"
> >>>>}
> >>>>
> >>>>---
> >>>>
> >>>>It scans all the directories specified in "add_dirs" directives for=
=20
> >>>>.m
> >>>>files and then queries octave for their descriptions, doing some
> >>>>gung-ho parsing to take care of all the different comment formats=20
> >>>>out
> >>>>there.
> >>>>
> >>>>The generated file signal.m can be generated (note: I havn't=20
> >>>>included
> >>>>any sub-categories here):
> >>>>
> >>>>##
> >>>>## Signal Processing Toolbox
> >>>>##
> >>>>## arburg       - fits an AR (p)-model using Burg method (a so=20
> >>>>called
> >>>>maximum entropy model).
> >>>>## arch_fit     - Fit an ARCH regression model to the time series Y
> >>>>using the scoring algorithm in Engle's original ARCH paper.
> >>>>## arch_rnd     - Simulate an ARCH sequence of length T with AR
> >>>>coefficients B and CH coefficients A.
> >>>>## arch_test    - For a linear regression model
> >>>>## arma_rnd     - Return a simulation of the ARMA model
> >>>>## aryule       - fits an AR (p)-model with Yule-Walker estimates.
> >>>>## autocor      - Return the autocorrelations from lag 0 to H of
> >>>>vector X.
> >>>>.
> >>>>.
> >>>>.
> >>>>## zplane       - Plot the poles and zeros.
> >>>>##
> >>>>## Unsupported functions:
> >>>>##
> >>>>## nosup
> >>>>## neithersup
> >>>>##
> >>>>
> >>>>It would also be easy to factor this out into a module so that only
> >>>>the front-end changes with every other method of presentation.  Thi=
s
> >>>>way you can generate a web page index, category descriptions like
> >>>>signal.m or anything else you want in any format.
> >>>>
> >>>>If the generated category descriptions are in the loadpath, calling
> >>>>"help signal" should do the job.  It will be trivial to generate a
> >>>>toolbox.m for "help toolbox" to get a list of all toolboxes.
> >>>>
> >>>>Also, a toolbox can "contain" any other toolbox.  You can, for
> >>>>example, make an image processing toolbox and include the signal
> >>>>processing
> >>>>toolbox if you so wish.
> >>>>
> >>>>Is this going in the right direction?  If not, I would appreciate a
> >>>>few pointers!
> >>>>
> >>>>I attach the scripts.
> >>>>
> >>>>Regards
> >>>>Stefan
> >>>>
> >>>>On Sun, May 30, 2004 at 12:00:46AM -0400, Paul Kienzle wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>>Stefan,
> >>>>>
> >>>>>I've extended dispatch() so that even functions called with no
> >>>>>parameters can be dispatched so octave-forge could now provide
> >>>>>categorical help independent of octave if we so choose.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>There's a small caveat in that dispatch already dispatches on=20
> >>>>>help, so
> >>>>>we need to remove it and call our own
> >>>>>
> >>>>>   ##PKG_ADD: dispatch('help','string')
> >>>>>   ##PKG_ADD: dispatch('help','cathelp','any')
> >>>>>   function cathelp(varargin)
> >>>>>     ...
> >>>>>     dispatch_help(pars{:})
> >>>>>
> >>>>>The call to dispatch_help at the end in order to fill in base help=
=20
> >>>>>for
> >>>>>dispatched functions.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>Are you still interested?
> >>>>>
> >>>>>My rule lately has been to not do anything too sophisticated=20
> >>>>>otherwise
> >>>>>nothing ever gets done.  At least that's my excuse for not fixing=20
> >>>>>the
> >>>>>problem I just noticed in dispatch which is that dispatches can't
> >>>>>chain.  You could
> >>>>>fake it if dispatch('name','type') returned the dispatch function=20
> >>>>>for
> >>>>>that type, or if dispatch('name','new','type') returned the old
> >>>>>dispatch function for that type.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>- Paul
> >>
> >>
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> >--=20
> >David Bateman                                Dav...@mo...=
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>=20