Passing variables up to the GUI

[John Donoghue]

Just a general question/observation/what will it take since I havent dug 
much into the depth of the octave engine.

Currently, in GUI land, the workspace-model is receiving notification of 
variables in scope via the set_workspace slot.
The variables are in string/stringlist format by this point, and are 
pretty much just input as is to the model.

If we want to do things like the ability of specifying additional 
columns  to display (min, max, avg etc??), the lower level will have to 
provide additional strings that are always being sent up to the GUI with 
the values as strings, unless we change how it is currently doing it

So how hard would it be (or whats the best/safest way) of being able to 
provide the variables up to the GUI where a amount of manipulation can 
be done?

I think it will be required if we want to be able to edit/display the 
content of variables, change how the GUI displays (without having to 
modify the engine each time).