Access to variables internal to Octave

[jswensen]

As I have been doing an implementation of handle graphics, I am nearing
completion of the 'root' handle.  I do have a few questions though

1) For the root object, there are properties for things like Echo, Diary,
DiaryFile, etc.  I cannot retrieve the state of these by calling 'diary' or
'echo' using feval.  Is there some octave-internal function I can use to
retrieve the following values: echo (on or off), diary (on or off), diaryfile(
string name), format( short, long, short E, etc)?
2) Is there an octave-internal function to retrieve the terminal width and
height used by Octave?

I could go source digging, but if some of you know it off the top of your head,
it would save me time looking and give me more time for working on the handle
graphics.

FYI, the framework I set up for handle graphics is nearing completion. 
Currently only 'root' and portions of 'figure' are done, but I did spend the
time to abstract the UI toolkit away from the core 'handles'.  My plan is to
complete root, figure, uicontrol, then start work on axes (through vtk).  A
design document will be forthcoming (hopefully in another week or two) to
describe the framework.

John

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