[Octave-bug-tracker] [bug #54965] Incomplete documentation of which and move of functions to packages

[Michael Godfrey]

URL:
  <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?54965>

                 Summary: Incomplete documentation of which and move of
functions to packages
                 Project: GNU Octave
            Submitted by: godfrey
            Submitted on: Mon 05 Nov 2018 09:15:31 PM UTC
                Category: Documentation
                Severity: 3 - Normal
                Priority: 5 - Normal
              Item Group: Documentation
                  Status: Confirmed
             Assigned to: None
         Originator Name: Godfrey
        Originator Email: 
             Open/Closed: Open
         Discussion Lock: Any
                 Release: 4.4.1
        Operating System: Any

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Details:

There appear to be several problems with the documentation of
code moved to packages. The result is that users cannot find
functions which have been moved from the core to a package
and lack information and documentation.

For example:
octave:1> which(exprnd)
error: 'exprnd' undefined near line 1 column 7
octave:1> 
And, the only occurrence of exprnd in the Manual is on page
981 (current dev version) where it is listed as the
replacement for exponential_pdf as of version 3.4.0.
exprnd is in fact in the statistics package.

The initial action items are:
1. Correct which() to at least work as intended and
   document it. Currently which is not documented, so
   someone who knows how it was intended to work will need
   to provide input.
2. Possibly extend which() to provide more information.
3. Document the results in the Manual.

Rik's comments are below:
++verbatim
On 11/04/2018 09:33 AM, Michael D Godfrey wrote:
>
>
> On 11/4/18 5:17 PM, Rik wrote:
>>
>>           
>> On 11/04/2018 08:58 AM, Michael D Godfrey wrote:
>>
>>           
>>>
>>>             
>>>>
>>>>               
>>>> On 11/4/18 3:01 PM, Mohammed Elmusrati wrote:
>>>> Hello,
>>>>
>>>> We had a complex simulation program to assist systems’ reliability.
>>>> Anyhow the code was written in Octave 4.0.2. We have observed that the
>>>> same code does not work on Octave 4.4.1 and the reason that ( 'exprnd’
>>>> undefined)!  This function generates random numbers with exponential
>>>> distribution. Is it a bug or the function has been removed from the new
>>>> version of Octave?
>>>>
>>>> Thank you
>>>>
>>>> Mohammed Elmusrati 
>>>>
>>>>             
>>>
>>>             
>>> This got answered, but there appears to be no mention in the current
>>> Manual about the
>>> moves of functions to packages on sourceforge.
>>>
>>>           
>>
>>           
>> It was mentioned in the NEWS file for 4.4.
>>
>>  ** The following statistical functions have been moved from core
>>     Octave to the statistics package available from Octave Forge.
>>
>> followed by the list of functions which includes exprnd.
>>
>> --Rik
>>
>>         
> Not everyone reads the NEWS file, or, of course, the Manual...
>
Michael,

Can you file a bug about this?  What should have happened is that the list of
functions in the statistics package was also updated in the core m-file
__unimplemented__.m.  This m-file is called when someone types a word which is
unrecognized by the interpreter.  There is already a test for possible
keywords which belong to the statistics function.

    ## statistics
    case {"addedvarplot", "addlevels", "addTerms", "adtest", ...
          "andrewsplot", "anova1", "anova2", "anovan", "ansaribradley", ...

...
...
      txt = check_package (fcn, "statistics");

The change should be made on stable.

Cheers,
Rik
--verbatim





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