[changeset] make str2mat an alias of char

[Thorsten Meyer]

Hi,

attached is a changeset that removes the str2mat.m function file and makes 
str2mat an alias of char.
The two functions do the same as far as I can see. Only the internal char 
function is of course much
faster than the str2mat.m function file. To me, it looks like str2mat is a 
leftover from a time
when char() was less permissive with respect to its input arguments.

regards

Thorsten


# HG changeset patch
# User Thorsten Meyer <address@hidden>
# Date 1227996430 -3600
# Node ID ab802d7d5acf6e674ab64f9e497c648c8a0c437b
# Parent  837027b45d3b3ccddb8ec0b9199da727a1a83d71
make str2mat an alias to char

diff -r 837027b45d3b -r ab802d7d5acf scripts/ChangeLog
--- a/scripts/ChangeLog Sat Nov 29 23:03:16 2008 +0100
+++ b/scripts/ChangeLog Sat Nov 29 23:07:10 2008 +0100
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+2008-11-29  Thorsten Meyer  <address@hidden>
+
+        * strings/str2mat.m: Make an alias of the char function
+        
 2008-11-29  Thorsten Meyer  <address@hidden>
 
         * miscellaneous/gzip.m: Remove @seealso reference to __xzip__,
diff -r 837027b45d3b -r ab802d7d5acf scripts/strings/Makefile.in
--- a/scripts/strings/Makefile.in       Sat Nov 29 23:03:16 2008 +0100
+++ b/scripts/strings/Makefile.in       Sat Nov 29 23:07:10 2008 +0100
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@
 
 SOURCES = base2dec.m bin2dec.m blanks.m deblank.m dec2base.m \
   dec2bin.m dec2hex.m findstr.m hex2dec.m index.m isletter.m isstrprop.m \
-  lower.m mat2str.m regexptranslate.m rindex.m split.m str2double.m str2mat.m \
+  lower.m mat2str.m regexptranslate.m rindex.m split.m str2double.m \
   str2num.m strcat.m cstrcat.m strcmpi.m strfind.m strjust.m strmatch.m \
   strncmpi.m strrep.m strtok.m strtrim.m strtrunc.m strvcat.m \
   substr.m upper.m validatestring.m
diff -r 837027b45d3b -r ab802d7d5acf scripts/strings/str2mat.m
--- a/scripts/strings/str2mat.m Sat Nov 29 23:03:16 2008 +0100
+++ /dev/null   Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
@@ -1,83 +0,0 @@
-## Copyright (C) 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007
-##               Kurt Hornik
-##
-## This file is part of Octave.
-##
-## Octave is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
-## under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
-## the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at
-## your option) any later version.
-##
-## Octave is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
-## WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
-## MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
-## General Public License for more details.
-##
-## You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
-## along with Octave; see the file COPYING.  If not, see
-## <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
-
-## -*- texinfo -*-
-## @deftypefn {Function File} {} str2mat (@var{s_1}, @dots{}, @var{s_n})
-## Return a matrix containing the strings @var{s_1}, @dots{}, @var{s_n} as
-## its rows.  Each string is padded with blanks in order to form a valid
-## matrix.
-##
-## This function is modelled after @sc{Matlab}.  In Octave, you can create
-## a matrix of strings by @address@hidden; @dots{}; @var{s_n}]} even if
-## the strings are not all the same length.
-## @end deftypefn
-
-## Author: Kurt Hornik <address@hidden>
-## Adapted-By: jwe
-
-function retval = str2mat (varargin)
-
-  if (nargin == 0)
-    print_usage ();
-  endif
-
-  nc = 0;
-  nr = 0;
-
-  nr = zeros (nargin, 1);
-  nc = zeros (nargin, 1);
-  for k = 1 : nargin
-    s = varargin{k};
-    if (! ischar (s))
-      s = char (s);
-    endif
-    [nr(k), nc(k)] = size (s);
-  endfor
-
-  tmp = find (nr == 0);
-
-  if (! isempty (tmp))
-    nr(tmp) = 1;
-  endif
-
-  retval_nr = sum (nr);
-  retval_nc = max (nc);
-
-  retval = char (ones (retval_nr, retval_nc) * toascii (" "));
-
-  row_offset = 0;
-  for k = 1 : nargin
-    s = varargin{k};
-    if (! ischar (s))
-      s = char (s);
-    endif
-    if (nc(k) > 0)
-      retval ((row_offset + 1) : (row_offset + nr(k)), 1:nc(k)) = s;
-    endif
-    row_offset = row_offset + nr(k);
-  endfor
-
-endfunction
-
-%!assert(strcmp (str2mat ("a", "bb", "ccc"), ["a  "; "bb "; "ccc"]));
-
-%!error str2mat ();
-
-%!assert(all (str2mat (1, 2, 3) == setstr ([1; 2; 3])));
-
diff -r 837027b45d3b -r ab802d7d5acf src/strfns.cc
--- a/src/strfns.cc     Sat Nov 29 23:03:16 2008 +0100
+++ b/src/strfns.cc     Sat Nov 29 23:07:10 2008 +0100
@@ -151,6 +151,7 @@
 %!assert (all(char (["a";"be"], {"c", 100}) == ["a";"be";"c";"d"]))
 */
 
+DEFALIAS (str2mat, char);
 
 DEFUN (ischar, args, ,
   "-*- texinfo -*-\n\