Re: Private company and code salvation

[John W. Eaton]

On 30-Sep-2008, David Bateman wrote:

| 4) Add API's
| 
| extern OCTINTERP_API Complex *mxGetPz (const mxArray *ptr);
| extern OCTINTERP_API void *mxGetComplexData (const mxArray *ptr);
| 
| to the mex API,
| 
| 5) document this change in the Octave manual clearly, in particular 
| making it clear that the above APIs can improve the efficiency of the 
| code, and

I think this change would be OK.  Note that if the octave_value has
already mutated to an mxArray object, calling these functions will be
slower, as the data will have to be copied again.  Also, it seems we
will need to keep track of the interleaved data as well, so that
changes made through the pointers returned by these functions will not
be lost.  Do you agree or am I missing something?

| 6) Try and improve the efficiency of the mex interface in the longer 
| term. The areas targeted being no need to copy const mxArray **prhs 
| values from the corresponding octave_values. Means of avoid copy of plhs 
| values on exit due to memory allocation with mxCalloc, etc.

I'm all for this too, but I didn't see how to do a better job and
still be compatible with the Matlab MEX interface it when I was
working on it.

jwe