ws_evalmcw(editHndl);

function ws_evalmcw(editHndl);
%WS_EVALMCW Evaluates a list of functions in a editable text uicontrol.
%
%   This is a modified version of the standard evalmcw function.
%   The modification forces the command written in the edit text to operate in the base workspace in 
%   order to make use of variables already defined there. This avoids enclosing in the edit text
%   variable creation commands for variables  already defined in the base workspace.
%   All command line outputs are redirected to the MCW. After an output line, a blank line is inserted.
%   This function ignores the three leading characters '>> ' of the lines in the MCW, and automatically 
%   adds those characters at the begining of MCW command lines, to fully emulates the command window behaviour
%   The content of the editable text uicontrol can be a cell array or a character array of strings
%   and WS_EVALMCW will always return a cell array of strings.
%   
%   REMARKS: commands that affect the appearence of the command window (e.g. clc, more), do not have
%       effect on the MCW.
%
%
%   Author: Francesco di Pierro
%   Ver: 2.1    &   Date: 20/3/2002
%

% Force text in MiniCommand Window to be displayed immediately
figNumber=watchon;
drawnow;

str=get(editHndl,'String');
%force it to be an array of strings
if iscell(str)
    str = char(str);
end
errorFlag=0;
numRows=size(str,1);
str_to_edit = {};
prompt = '>> ';
for count=1:numRows
    try
      %if the user have positionned the cursor on a new line prior to activating the callback
      %a blank line is also passed to the eval function. If such a line is encountered, it gets skipped
      if isempty(double(deblank(str(count,:))))
          continue
      end
      %this creates the string to be executed in matlab base workspace
      str_command = str(count,:);
      %if the string to be executed starts with '>> ' (which is what this function writes 
      %in the MCW at the beginning of a line containing commands),
      %ignore the first three characters
      if strcmp('>> ',str_command(1:3))
          str_command = str_command(4:end);
      end
      str_to_eval = ['out=evalc([''',str_command,''']);'];
      %this evaluates the expression and capture matlab output in the variable out
      evalin('base',str_to_eval);
      %this assign to the local variable out variable the content of the base workspace varible out
      out = evalin('base','out');
      command = cellstr([prompt,str_command]);
      %if the command produces outputs ,  skip a line
      if not(isempty(out))
          str_build = [command;cellstr(out)];
          str_to_edit = [str_to_edit;str_build;{' '}];
      %otherwise don't 
      else
          str_build = command;
          str_to_edit = [str_to_edit;str_build];    
      end
    catch
      errorFlag=1;
    end
    % Exit the loop as soon as there is an error
    if errorFlag, break; end;
end;

% If an error has occurred, display the error in the MCW and reset the field.
% Otherwise, store the legal code in the object's UserData and direct the command line output in the MCW
if errorFlag,
    set(editHndl,'ForegroundColor',[1 0 0]);
    %Pad "lasterr" with spaces for consistency
    lasterrStr=[32 lasterr];
    errorStr=char({' Error Detected:'; lasterrStr; ' Resetting Input'});
    set(editHndl,'String',errorStr);
    pause(3);
    oldStr=get(editHndl,'UserData');
    set(editHndl,'String',oldStr);
    set(editHndl,'ForegroundColor',[0 0 0]);
else
    set(editHndl,'String',str_to_edit);
    set(editHndl,'UserData',str);
end;

%clear the temporary variable out in the base workspace
evalin('base','clear out');

watchoff(figNumber);