Error defining anonymous function handle, inline function or embedded function

[David Bateman]

I'm trying to write some test code using the octave-forge test/assert 
functions and I have a block like

%!test
%! function y = fn (x), n = 10; y = 
spdiags([ones(n,1),4*ones(n,1),ones(n,1)],[-2,0,2],n,n) * x; endfunction;
%! opts.issym = 1; opts.isreal = 1;
%! d1 = eigs (@fn, n, k, 'lm', opts);
%! assert (d1, d0((end-k+1):end), 1e-12);

Running this test results in the error

!!!!! test failed
error: nested functions not implemented in this context

which seems to be coming from the parser. Changing this to read

%! fn = inline 
('spdiags([ones(10,1),4*ones(10,1),ones(10,1)],[-2,0,2],10,10) * x', 'x');

results in the equally confusing error

error: error creating function handle "@fn", though

%! fn = @(x) 
spdiags([ones(10,1),4*ones(10,1),ones(10,1)],[-2,0,2],10,10) * x;

seems to work. Before filing a bug report, is this the expected 
behaviour? I believe that the test.m function in octave-forge reads 
these comments then calls eval on them embedded in another function. So 
in this case the first error is understandable as we can't do

function y = f1 (x)
  function p = f2 (q)
     p = q+1;
  endfunction
  y = f2(x) + 1;
endfunction

but the second error I don't understand at all, or why it works for a 
function handle.. All of these work is they aren't used in a test block...

Regards
David

--
David Bateman                                address@hidden
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Parc Les Algorithmes, Commune de St Aubin    +33 1 69 35 77 01 (Fax) 
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