Re: Figure numbers as strings?

[Ben Abbott]

On Mar 30, 2010, at 11:54 AM, Søren Hauberg wrote:

> tir, 30 03 2010 kl. 07:40 -0400, skrev Ben Abbott:
>> On Mar 30, 2010, at 1:03 AM, Michael D Godfrey wrote:
>> 
>>> On 03/29/2010 09:07 PM, Søren Hauberg wrote:
>>>> Matlab does not allow this, and honestly it really is bad style. I would
>>>> enjoy being able to use this syntax (well, I already use, it just
>>>> doesn't work...)
>>>> 
>>>> Cheers,
>>>> Søren
>>>> 
>>> I hope this gets accepted.  Convenience for users beats lots of
>>> other rules...
>>> 
>>> Michael
>> 
>> I have no objections. I haven't tried you patch. How does it handle ...
>> 
>>      figure color r
>> 
>> ... and ...
>> 
>>      figure 7 color r
> 
> That works just fine. 'figure' is already working such that if the
> number of input arguments is uneven, the first input argument needs to
> be a number or a figure handle. I just added the check that if the input
> is a string it is converted to a number. So, the change is not very
> intrusive and should pretty much just work.
> 
> It is still bad style to pass a string instead of a number, though...
> 
> Søren

I like the functionality and agree passing a character instead of number is bad 
style.

I was worried about what the command below would do.

        figure foobar

You patch handles it nicely.

        octave:2> figure foobar
        error: figure: expecting figure handle or figure number

I'm ok with having this pushed.

Ben