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From: "Paul Mennen" <nospam@mennen.org>
Newsgroups: comp.soft-sys.matlab
Subject: Re: Submission of p-code
Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 23:29:02 +0000 (UTC)
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> I agree completely and just so Paul (and everyone else)
> doesn't think this is hypothetical I will say that this
> is exactly why I have never been even slightly inclined
> to download and try plt. Not because I think Paul is
> doing something I don't like, but because it is against
> the spirit of the FEX and from it I can learn nothing.

> Of course, if I don't know and trust the author I would
> also not run p-code for those other reasons as well.
> Doug Schwarz

I'm not sure Doug, if you are putting me in the category of
trusted authors or not. You've probably seen my posts on
this group for years both posing and answering questions.
Not sure if that counts for much, but also many people have
used plt and a few of my other submissions and nobody has
ever posted that I was up to some nefarious purpose. If you
have ever downloaded a shareware application, you know there
is some risk in every one. But the benefit is large as well
because of the huge variety of applications and tools that
we can find that may help us in our work.

I always like to say that there are three important
protections that should be used to protect ourselves against
both intentional and unintentional destructive software.  In
order they are: Backups, Backups, and Backups :) The beauty
of these three protections, is they also protect us from the
most common reason of data loss (accidental deletions, and
other forms of pilot error).

Perhaps education is the major goal of FEX, but that doesn't
mean it is the only one. If a useful tool is provided, what
is the harm in that? I'd like to point out that plot makes
called to the lower level Matlab GUI objects (figure, axes,
line, etc.) in much the same way that plt does yet no doubt
you have happily used plot despite the fact that you don't
have the source code to it.

Even though I think of plt as a tool, that is not to say you
can't learn anything from it. plt uses colors and the mouse
differently that plot for a distinctly different "look and
feel". The calling sequence style (for all but the simplest
plots) is somewhat different as well.

All this is demonstrated with clearly written and commented
examples (with source code!). This may give you ideas about
how you may want to design your next graphical user
interface whether plt is used or not. In addition, compared
with the native matlab style of workspace plotting, plt
includes a distinctly different implementation, which some
users have told me makes the whole idea practical.

Looking at the source code to plt would not likely add to
your learning experience. It would more likely add to your
frustration. Probably the same would result if you had
access to the source to plot, since it is probably just as
complex.

If none of that interests you that is fine. There are
thousands of submissions on FEX and most users are
interested in only a small fraction of them. However to
declare my submission "against the spirit of the FEX" is
perhaps a bit harsh and a disservice to other users who
might find my submission both useful and educational.

~Paul