[Octave-bug-tracker] [bug #59570] variable editor should save a "range" variable to file as simple numbers

[Hartmut]

URL:
  <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?59570>

                 Summary: variable editor should save a "range" variable to
file as simple numbers
                 Project: GNU Octave
            Submitted by: hardy
            Submitted on: Sat 28 Nov 2020 09:42:54 PM UTC
                Category: GUI
                Severity: 3 - Normal
                Priority: 5 - Normal
              Item Group: Feature Request
                  Status: None
             Assigned to: None
         Originator Name: 
        Originator Email: 
             Open/Closed: Open
                 Release: 6.1.0
         Discussion Lock: Any
        Operating System: Any

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Details:

Here is how to reproduce the current behavior of the GUI variable editor, that
I mean:

* create some range variable, for example: a = 1:10;
* open the GUI variable editor, for example by clicking onto the "a" name in
the variable listing window
* click somewhere into the opening "a" window in the variable editor
* pick the "save" icon in the variable editor, accept the suggested file name
and save the file, in my case "a.txt"
* open this file and have a look at the content, in my case it looks like
this:


# Created by Octave 6.1.0, Sat [...]
# name: a
# type: range
# base, limit, increment
1 10 1


I think this is in some way the correct thing to do. But it is a very
unexpected result for the kind of user that I think might use the GUI variable
editor to save some numbers to a file. Also this file content is different
from what the variable editor showed in the GUI window (it there showed: 1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10).

I would like to SUGGEST, that this "save" function in the GUI variable editor
should insted save a row of "simple" numbers to that text file, especially
since there isnt't a corresponding "import" function in the variable editor
that might make use of this current special notation.

This probably boils down to the suggestion: Please save a range variable as
matrix variable instead. (The generated file would then be useful to be read
in by any kind of data processing or spreadsheet calculation software
afterwards.)




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