'handle' function is not yet implemented in Octave workaround?

[RT]

Greetings I'm running into an error on octave 3.8.1 with the code below is there a workaround

warning: the 'handle' function is not yet implemented in Octave

Code below:

r = @(t) exp(.306349*t);
h = plot(0,0,'Color','b','LineWidth',2);
h = handle(h);
axis(50*[-1 1 -1 1]);
grid on
n = 1;
for t = 0 : .1 : 5*pi
    x(n) = r(t) .* cos(t);
    y(n) = r(t) .* sin(t);
    h.XData(n) = x(n); 
    h.YData(n) = y(n);
    n = n + 1;
end