[Octave-bug-tracker] [bug #35157] Naive users baffled by "complex scalar type invalid as index value"

[Clem]

URL:
  <http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?35157>

                 Summary: Naive users baffled by "complex scalar type invalid
as index value"
                 Project: GNU Octave
            Submitted by: clemwang
            Submitted on: Fri 23 Dec 2011 03:00:56 AM GMT
                Category: Interpreter
                Severity: 3 - Normal
                Priority: 5 - Normal
              Item Group: Other
                  Status: None
             Assigned to: None
         Originator Name: Clem
        Originator Email: 
             Open/Closed: Open
         Discussion Lock: Any
                 Release: 3.4.0
        Operating System: Mac OS

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Details:

The free Stanford Machine Learning Class (ml-class.org) used Octave with very
good results, so thousands thank you for all your hard work on Octave.

However, some students do not have a good background in mathematics.

A not uncommon error was to use *i* as an index variable and forget to
initialize it, leading to an error like this:


a = [1 2 3]
a(i)
error: complex scalar type invalid as index value


To the naive user, the word *"complex"* first suggests *"complicated"* and not
"A number from the Complex Number Set".

I suggest an alternate wording (with capitalizations):

*error: index values must not be from the Set of Complex Numbers.*

Admitted a small, five minute change, but it would save a few people-hours of
frustration and confusion.

Thanks









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