Re: Detecting Matlab or Octave

[Paul Kienzle]

On Thu, Jul 25, 2002 at 06:43:20AM -0500, Peter Brinkmann wrote:
> 
> > | Is there some way to detect, inside a function, whether that function is 
> > | running under Matlab or Octave?
> > | 
> > | A really lame method would be to test for facilities that exist in Matlab 
> > | but not Octave using the exist() function, but of course that fails when 
> > | the facilities finally appear in Octave.
> > 
> > Why does it fail if Octave later provides the feature you are looking
> > for (I'm assuming tests like this would be done for each missing
> > feature that you need to work around)?
> 
> I've observed some subtle differences between Matlab and Octave that
> need to be dealt with, even if Matlab and Octave have the same feature.
> The 'axis' command comes to mind.
> 
> > | Does anyone have a good idea about this, or is there a known good method?
> > 
> > What about
> > 
> >   if (exist ('OCTAVE_VERSION'))
> >     % Octave-specific stuff here
> >   else
> >     % Stuff suitable for the other leading brand goes here
> >   end
> > 
> > ?
> 
> Doesn't this fail if someone defines 'OCTAVE_VERSION' as a variable
> under Matlab? I don't think this is likely to happen, but still...

exist returns a larger number if the variable is a built-in.  Check what
exist('OCTAVE_VERSION') returns in octave against what OCTAVE_VERSION=1;
exist('OCTAVE_VERSION') returns in matlab.

- Paul Kienzle
address@hidden



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