Question

I get a syntax error for the following line in octave 3.6.2:

if(exist('OCTAVE_VERSION')~=0) more off; end

while:

if(exist('OCTAVE_VERSION')~=0)
 more off;
end

seems ok. Yet:

if(exist('OCTAVE_VERSION')~=0) fflush(stdout); end

works nicely.

Is this a bug(?) related to non the parenthesized argument of more?

Thanks

Answer 1

I also got the same results in Octave 3.4.3:

Seems to be a harmless compiler bug in octave, when you use the command ‘more off’ or ‘more on’ inside a 1 line if statement, a syntax error is thrown.

If you add a newline after the the conditional, or if you surround “more off” inside an eval(…), then it works correctly.

%works correctly, turns off paging screen output
if(1)
  more off;
end

%works correctly, prints 3.4.3
if(1) disp(OCTAVE_VERSION);  end

%works correctly, prints '1'
if(1) disp([1]); more off;  end

%syntax error when parsing "off" in 'more off'.
if(1) more off; endif

%syntax error on parsing 'off' in 'more off;'
if 1 more off;  endif

%works correctly, turns off paging screen output
if (1) eval("more off"); endif

The syntax error thrown is: “error: parse error while reading script file”.