1 ;;; octave-hlp.el --- getting help on Octave symbols using info
3 ;; Copyright (C) 1997 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
5 ;; Author: Kurt Hornik <Kurt.Hornik@ci.tuwien.ac.at>
6 ;; Author: John Eaton <jwe@bevo.che.wisc.edu>
7 ;; Maintainer: Kurt Hornik <Kurt.Hornik@ci.tuwien.ac.at>
10 ;; This file is part of GNU Emacs.
12 ;; GNU Emacs is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
13 ;; it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
14 ;; the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
17 ;; GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
18 ;; but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
19 ;; MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
20 ;; GNU General Public License for more details.
22 ;; You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
23 ;; along with GNU Emacs; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the
24 ;; Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330,
25 ;; Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
29 ;; Provides the command `octave-help' which allows index lookup of a
30 ;; symbol in the Octave-related info files, as specified by the list
31 ;; `octave-help-files'.
33 ;; Other features may be added in future versions.
40 (defvar octave-help-files
'("octave")
41 "List of info files with documentation for Octave.
42 Default is (\"octave\").")
44 (defvar octave-help-lookup-alist nil
45 "Alist of Octave index entries for lookup.")
47 (defvar octave-help-completion-alist nil
48 "Alist of Octave index entries for completion.
49 The entries are of the form (VAR . VAR), where VAR runs through all
50 different keys in `octave-help-lookup-alist'.")
53 (defun octave-help (key)
54 "Get help on Octave symbols from the Octave info files.
55 Look up KEY in the function, operator and variable indices of the files
56 specified by `octave-help-files'.
57 If KEY is not a string, prompt for it with completion."
60 (completing-read (format "Describe Octave symbol: ")
61 (octave-help-get-completion-alist)
63 (if (get-buffer "*info*")
64 (set-buffer "*info*"))
65 (if (zerop (length key
))
66 (Info-find-node (car octave-help-files
) "Top")
67 (let ((alist (copy-alist (octave-help-get-lookup-alist)))
69 (while (setq entry
(car alist
))
70 (if (string-match key
(car entry
))
71 (add-to-list 'matches entry
))
72 (setq alist
(cdr alist
)))
75 (setq Info-index-alternatives matches
)
76 (Info-index-next 0))))))
78 (defun octave-help-get-lookup-alist ()
79 "Build the index lookup alist from all Octave info files.
80 The files specified by `octave-help-files' are searched."
81 (if octave-help-lookup-alist
83 (message "Building help lookup alist...")
84 (let ((files octave-help-files
) file key node
)
85 (save-window-excursion
87 (setq file
(car files
))
88 (Info-goto-node (concat "(" file
")"))
94 (while (re-search-forward
95 "^\\* \\([^(:]+\\)[^:]*: *\\(.+\\)\\.$"
97 (setq key
(match-string 1)
98 node
(concat "(" file
")" (match-string 2)))
99 (and (string-match "\\(.*\\>\\) *$" key
)
100 (setq key
(replace-match "\\1" t nil key
)))
101 (add-to-list 'octave-help-lookup-alist
104 (concat (concat "(" file
")")
107 (and (setq node
(Info-extract-pointer "next" t
))
109 (concat "\\(Function\\|Operator\\|Variable\\) "
112 (Info-goto-node node
)))
114 (setq files
(cdr files
)))))
115 (message "Building help lookup alist...done"))
116 octave-help-lookup-alist
)
118 (defun octave-help-get-completion-alist ()
119 "Build the index completion alist from all Octave info files.
120 The files specified by `octave-help-files' are searched."
121 (if octave-help-completion-alist
123 (message "Building help completion alist...")
124 (let ((alist (octave-help-get-lookup-alist)) entry
)
126 (setq entry
(car alist
))
127 (add-to-list 'octave-help-completion-alist
128 (cons (car entry
) (car entry
)))
129 (setq alist
(cdr alist
))))
130 (message "Building help completion alist...done"))
131 octave-help-completion-alist
)
135 (provide 'octave-hlp
)
137 ;;; octave-hlp.el ends here