According to John W. Eaton <address@hidden> (on 08/03/04):
The @class directory hack is similar to the private function
subdirectory hack. It will require some changes to the file lookup
code (in liboctave/pathsearch.cc). Some time ago, I pared down the
kpathsearch code and converted it C++ (use C++ strings, new/delete,
etc.) in anticipation of having to modify it to handle these new
features that are specific to Octave. Also, I never liked the fact
that there was no clean separation between the basic file lookup code
and the TeX-specific features of the kpathsearch code. Now the code
for file lookup that is actually used in Octave is much smaller than
before. It is only about 3200 lines long in the file kpse.cc and the
file in CVS has about 600 lines that are not currently used, so it
could be even smaller. We should be able to adapt this code and the
symbol lookup code in Octave's symbol table to do the right thing when
looking for functions once we define the proper search order.
Exactly. Any ideas what the right search order is. Do private functions
take precedence? What about those in a class? And what about structures
like @class1/@class2 that Matlab permits? Do they make any sense
without
Simulink? Should we support them?