[Octave-bug-tracker] [bug #37521] clear('functions') deletes subfunctions

[Philip Nienhuis]

Follow-up Comment #7, bug #37521 (project octave):

First of all, sorry if my comments sound pedantic.

"what does the behavior with respect to persistent variables have to do with
anything?" - Well, in bottom of comment #4 you came up yourself with
persistent vars in relation to what you thought that "clear('functions')"
would do.

I assume that "clear('functions')" isn't meant (in the sense of: "has never
been foreseen") to be used from inside a function. What advantage would
"clear('functions')" from within a function have anyway, compared to a simple
"clear" in the same context?

But apparently you found some good use for ML's unspecified but apparent
behavior that doesn't work the same in Octave, and based on that you now
conclude that Octave is "incompatible" or even behaves "nonsensically" (no
offense taken BTW).

I'm not gonna repeat this forever:
Octave does strive for "ML compatibility", but for documented functionality
only (and BTW, not for bug-for-bug compatibility).
Now, where in the ML docs is the description of "clear('functions')" invoked
from within a function?

As to nonsensical: I can imagine a perhaps far-fetched situation where
Octave's behavior could be very useful and rational. It just depends.
Sorry if Octave doesn't do what you -based on no formal description at all-
expect it to do.


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