Re: Implementation of importdata belonging to Octave Core or Octave-Forge?

[Philip Nienhuis]

Erik Kjellson wrote
> On 19 October 2012 15:54, Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso <

> jordigh@

> >wrote:
> 
>> On 19 October 2012 09:37, Juan Pablo Carbajal <

> ajuanpi+dev@

> >
>> wrote:
>> > On Tue, Oct 16, 2012 at 9:04 PM, Erik Kjellson
>> > <

> address@hidden

> > wrote:
>> >> Hello,
>> >>
>> >> I have written an implementation of the Matlab function 'importdata'.
>> I'm
>> >> getting a bit confused about the borderline between Octave Core and
>> >> Octave-Forge, so I don't know where it belongs...
>> >>
>> >> My implementation covers most of the functionality in the Matlab
>> version,
>> >> but not all. For example, I haven't implemented the automatic
>> detection
>> of
>> >> the column separator. Also, for some special cases (like if you in the
>> data
>> >> section of the file would have some letters among numeric data) you
>> still
>> >> get a slightly different output.
>> >>
>> >> The 'importdata' is, as far as I know, a part of Matlab Core rather
>> than a
>> >> toolbox.
>> >> Does the implementation have to be complete to be able to have it in
>> Octave
>> >> Core?
>> >>
>> >> Or is it better to add it to the Octave-Forge project for now?
>> >>
>> >> regards,
>> >> Erik
>> >
>> > Hi Erik,
>> >
>> > Cool!
>> >
>> > I would say that if compatibility is not complete then better to keep
>> > it in Forge.
>>
>> Nah, we have tons of incomplete compatibility functions in core. One
>> more will do no harm. It should go in core.
>>
>> > also, you should upload your function seomwhere so we can
>> > see the coding style, Octave core is very strict in this.
>>
>> This is a minor thing. I can adapt its style as necessary.
>>
>> - Jordi G. H.
>>
> Hello,
> 
> Now I have uploaded my implementation here:
> https://sourceforge.net/p/octave/feature-requests/41/
> 
> I've noticed that a lot of function files have some kind of tests in the
> end of the file. I guess that you use them to check that you haven't
> introduced any logic error in the code when modifying it?
> I did find this page: http://wiki.octave.org/Tests
> But I guess I need to fake input from a fake file in some way, is there
> anywhere I can read more on how to do that?

While perusing importdata.m in the log, I saw that it includes an error
message for WK1 and other spreadsheet file formats.

While there is no WK1 support in core Octave (nor for any other spreadsheet
format, for that matter) there is in the Octave-Forge io package. Using that
and e.g. LibreOffice one can read a plethora of file formats, not just
.wk1/.xls/.xlsx, but also .sxc/.ods/.fods/.uods/.dbf/.html/.csv/.pxl/....
etc.

Just like in e.g. usejava.m a while ago, we stumble upon core Octave
functions yielding messages that ignore possibly present functionality in
installed (and loaded) octave-forge packages.

So, would it be a good idea to amend importdata.m to first check for
additional file format reading capabilities outside core Octave and only
when installed Octave-Forge packages don't have it, issue a message like:

  "importdata: install and load io package and dependencies for file format
" <EXTENSION>
?
 
FYI, in this case the check for additional file format capability is easily
accomplished using a try...catch around a call to chk_spreadsheet_support.m
(from the io package); that function's output indicates what file formats
are supported in the io pkg.

So what's the opinion of other devs here as to:

1. error messages about lacking functions in core that might be present in
installed octave-forge packages?

2. (before I start coding) amending importdata's capabilities?

Philip




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