Slow Processing Issue

[fritz]

I have a very simple script shown below. I am processing a small 
file-about 50,000 lines of 60 bytes each. The file loads just fine but 
the "for" loop takes around 15 minutes on a laptop that generally does 
not have performance issues. I recall that early versions of matlab had 
some type of "file reallocation" recommendation to speed things up.
  Should Octave be able to do this script in a reasonable amount of time?
  Am I doing anything wrong here?

Thanks
Fritz

=================================================================
1;
clear all
  workfile  = fileread 
('C:\Users\fsonnichsen\Desktop\conduct\minicom.cap');
  workfile = strsplit (workfile, "\n");
  disp("WORKFILE LOADED");fflush(stdout);
  for i = 1:length(workfile)
    Clog(i,:) = strtrim (strsplit (workfile{i}, ","));
    %if mod(i,1000)==0 display(i); fflush(stdout);end;
  endfor