README for spreadsheet file r/w access scripts for Octave (> 3.8.x)
Copyright (C) 2009 - 2020 Philip Nienhuis <prnienhuis at users.sf.net>
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February 22, 2020
SPREADSHEET I/O SUPPORT FOR OCTAVE
> > > > AN IMPORTANT THING TO KEEP IN MIND < < < <
The spreadsheet I/O functions merely serve for data I/O, or in other words, just transferring data from or to spreadsheet files.
More sophisticated stuff like formatting or overhauling worksheet setup is simply out of scope.
General overview of functions and files
As of io-2.6.0, the separate functions for .ods and .xls(x) formats have been unified into the xls* functions. The ods* functions still live on as wrappers for their xls* siblings, although they are now formally deprecated. This means that from now on all spreadsheet formats that used to be divided over the ods* and xls* functions can be read / written with either ods* or xls* functions. In the overview below the ods* siblings are indicated between parentheses after their xls* counterparts.
This move was badly needed to be able to cut down on maintenance, as the various ods* functions did largely the same as their xls* siblings (think of input validation, preprocessing, input argument handling, file handling, etc.).
The choice for keeping xls* functions and deprecating the ods* functions is a logical consequence of Octave striving to be Matlab-compatible: Matlab doesn't have ods* functions, only xls* functions.
doc/Spreadsheet-IO-in-Octave.html
This file.
xlsread.m (odsread.m)
All-in-one functions for reading data from one specific worksheet in a spreadsheet file. This script has Matlab-compatible functionality.
xlswrite.m (odswrite.m)
All-in-one function for writing data to one specific worksheet in a spreadsheet file. This script has Matlab-compatible functionality.
xlsfinfo.m (odsfinfo.m)
All-in-one function for exploring basic properties of a spreadsheet file. This script has Matlab-compatible functionality.
xlsopen.m (odsopen.m)
Function for "opening" (= providing a handle to) a spreadsheet file ("workbook"). This function sorts out which interface to use for .xls(x), .ods, .gnumeric or other file format access (i.e., COM; Java & Apache POI; jOpendocument; JexcelAPI; OpenXLS; etc.), but it's choice can be overridden.
xls2oct.m (ods2oct.m)
Function for reading data from a specific worksheet pointed to in a struct created by xlsopen.m. xls2oct can be called multiple times consecutively using the same pointer struct, each time allowing to read data from different ranges and/or worksheets. Data are returned in the form of a 2D heterogeneous cell array that can be parsed by parsecell.m. xls2oct is a mere wrapper for (hidden, "private") interface-dependent scripts that do the actual low-level reading.
oct2xls.m (oct2ods.m)
Function for writing data to a specific worksheet pointed to in a struct created by xlsopen.m. octxls can be called multiple times consecutively using the same pointer struct, each time allowing to write data to different ranges and/or worksheets. oct2xls is a mere wrapper for (hidden, "private") interface-dependent scripts that do the actual low-level writing.
xlsclose.m (odsclose.m)
Function for closing (the handle to) a spreadsheet file. When data have been written to the workbook in memory, xlsclose will write the workbook to disk. Otherwise, the file pointer is simply closed and possibly used interfaces for spreadsheet access (LibreOffice, COM/ActiveX/Excel.exe) will be shut down properly.
parsecell.m
Function for separating the data in raw arrays returned by xls2oct, into numerical/logical and text (cell) arrays.
chk_spreadsheet_support.m
Internal function for (1) checking, (2) setting up, (3) debugging spreadsheet support. While not specifically meant for direct invocation from the Octave prompt (it is more useful during initialization of Octave itself) it can be very helpful when hunting down issues with spreadsheet support in Octave
calccelladdress.m
Support function called by the script functions; calculates spreadsheet type row/column address based on 1-based row/column numbers.
test_spsh.m, io_testscript.m
Undocumented scripts for testing basic features of the spreadsheet scripts. Meant for testers and developers.
Private utility functions
Most of the above functions delegate actual file and data handling to "interface"-specific functions that are "private" (= hidden from the user and not directly callable by users).
Templates
The io package installation directory contains a "template" subdirectory. This contains empty spreadsheet "frameworks" that are only used as templates for writing data to new spreadsheet files. I do not think they can be read as-is by spreadsheet programs, so don't try that.
SUPPORT SOFTWARE
For the native Octave interface (OCT)
(read/write support for OOXML (Excel 2007+), ODS 1.2 (LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org Calc), and Gnumeric) NO external support software is required!
For the Java / Apache POI / JExcelAPI / OpenXLS / LibreOffice | OpenOffice.org interfaces (general):
Octave 3.7.2 or later with Java support compiled in;
Java JRE or JDK > 1.8.0 (hasn't been tested with earlier versions);
class .jar jOpendocument-<version>.jar. The best version is 1.4.1-rc2. Get it here: http://www.jopendocument.org
.xls / .xlsx / .xlsm file formats
Apache POI specific:
Basic support for .xls:
class .jars: poi-3.5-FINAL-<date>.jar & poi-ooxml-3.5-<date>.jar (or later versions) in javaclasspath.
Get them here: http://poi.apache.org/download.html
Starting with POI-3.15, another Java class lib is required: commons-collections4-.jar
Recent releases of Apache POI provide zipped / tar.gz'd archives with all required files inside.
These class libs must be referenced with full pathnames in your javaclasspath.
When the io package gets loaded, a utility function (__init_io__.m) invokes an initiaization function that tries to automatically find the Java class libs and adds the ones it found to the javaclasspath; When the io package gets unloaded, these same class libs will be removed from the javaclasspath.
On MinGW the required Java class libs had best be put in /<libdir>/java (where <libdir> on MinGW is usually /lib); on Linux system supplied Java class libs usually reside in /usr/share/java. Alternatively, you can put them in your HOME directory in a subdirectory java (mind case!) - on *nix that would be ~./java, on Windows %USERPROFILE%/java (same level as My Documents). The PKG_ADD routine, that gets run each time the io package is loaded, expects the class libs there; if they are elsewhere, add them in ./share/octave/<version>/m/startup/octaverc using appropriate javaaddpath statements or a chk_spreadsheet_support() call.
In addition, you can specify a subdirectory using the environment variable OCTAVE_IO_JAVALIBS.
Once a particular Java class lib has been added to the javaclasspath, it won't be searched anymore nor reloaded from the next search location. The search order is:
Specified by the environment variable OCTAVE_IO_JAVALIBS
<HOME_DIR>/java
/usr/share/java (*nix) or /lib/java (MinGW)
If you do not want to automatically load the Java class libs, specify a value of "no", "false" or "0" for the OCTAVE_IO_JAVALIBS environment variable before starting Octave.
.ods, .xls, .xlsx, .xlsm, .sxc + several other file formats
UNO specific (invoking OpenOffice.org (or clones) behind the scenes):
NOTE: EXPERIMENTAL!!
A working OpenOffice.org installation.
Be aware that OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice arch type (32-bit or 64-bit) must match Octave's arch type.
The utility function chk_spreadsheet_support had best be used to add the needed entries to the javaclasspath. The relevant Java class libs are unoil.jar, unoloader.jar, jurt.jar, juh.jar and ridl.jar (which are scattered around the OOo installation directory), while also the <OOo>/program/ directory needs to be in the classpath.
For the Excel/COM interface:
A windows computer with MS-Excel installed;
Octave-forge Windows package, version > 1.2.1. Don't forget to load the package.
USAGE
xlsread (odsread) and xlswrite (odswrite) are mere wrappers for xlsopen (odsopen) - xls2oct (ods2oct) - xlsclose (odsclose) - parsecell and xlsopen (odsopen) - oct2xls (oct2ods) - xlsclose (odsclose) sequences, resp. They exist for the sake of Matlab compatibility.
xlsfinfo (odsfinfo) can be used for finding out what worksheet names exist in the file.
Invoking xlsopen/..../xlsclose directly provides for much more flexibility, speed, and robustness than xlsread / xlswrite. Indeed, using the same file handle (pointer struct) you can mix reading & writing before writing the workbook out to disk using xlsclose.
And: xlsopen / xlsclose hide the gory interface details from the user.
When using xlsopen....xlsclose be sure to keep track of the file handle struct.
A possible scenario:
xlh = xlsopen (<spreadsheet_filename> , [rw], [<requested interface>])
# Set rw to 1 if you want to write to a workbook immediately.
# In that case the check for file existence is skipped and
# -if needed- a new workbook created.
# If you really want an other interface than auto-selected
# by xlsopen you can request that. But xlsopen still checks
# proper support for your choice.
# Read some data
[ rawarr1, xlh ] = xls2oct (xlh, <SomeWorksheet>, <Range>)
# Be sure to specify xlh as output argument as xls2oct keeps
# track of changes and the need to write the workbook to disk
# in the xlhstruct. And the origin range is conveyed through
# the xlh pointer struct.
# Separate data into numeric and text data
[ numarr1, txtarr1, lim1 ] = parsecell (rawarr1)
# Get more data from another worksheet in the same workbook
[ rawarr2, xlh ] = xls2oct (xlh, <SomeOtherWorksheet>, <Range>)
[ numarr2, txtarr2, lim2 ] = parsecell (rawarr2)
# <... Analysis and preparation of new data in cell array Newdata....>
# Add new data to spreadsheet
xlh = oct2xls (Newdata, xlh, <AnotherWorksheet>, <Range>)
# Close the workbook and write it to disk; then clear the handle
xlh = xlsclose (xlh)
clear xlh
When not using the COM interface, specify a value of 'POI' for parameter REQINTF when accessing OOXML files in xlsread, xlswrite, xlsopen, xlsfinfo (and be sure the complete Apache POI interface is installed). If you haven't got ActiveX installed (i.e., not having MS-Excel under Windows) specifying 'POI' may not be needed as in such cases Apache POI is the next default interface.
When using JExcelAPI (JXL), after writing into a worksheet you MUST save the file adding data to the same or another worksheet is no more possible after the first call to oct2xls(). This is a limitation of JExcelAPI.
SPREADSHEET FORMULA SUPPORT, STRIPPING AND ENCODING
When using the COM, POI, JXL, OXS, UNO and OCT interfaces you can:
(When reading, xls2oct) either read evaluated spreadsheet formula results, or the literal formula text strings;
(When writing, oct2xls) either enter text strings in the form of spreadsheet formulas in the worksheet as formulas, or enter them as literal text strings.
In short, you can enter spreadsheet formulas and in a later stage read them back, change them and re-enter them in the worksheet.
The behaviour is controlled by an option structure options which has some fields ("flags") that can be set to TRUE or FALSE:
options.formulas_as_text = 0 (the default) implies enter formulas as formulas and read back formula result
options.formulas_as_text =1 (or any positive integer) means enter formulas as text strings and read them back as text strings.
Be aware that there's no formula evaluator in JExcelAPI (JXL), OpenXLS, Odf Toolkit or jOpendocument. So if you create formulas in your spreadsheet using oct2xls or xlswrite with e.g., 'JXL', do not expect meaningful results when reading those files later on unless you first open them in LibreOffice, Excel or Apache POI and write them back to disk.
While both Apache POI and JExcelAPI feature a formula validator, not all spreadsheet functions present in Excel have been implemented (yet).
Worse, older Excel versions feature less functions than newer versions. So be wary as this may make for interesting confusion.
options.strip_array = 1 (the default) instructs Octave to strip the output arrays resulting from reading a spreadsheet from empty outer rows and columns.
options.strip_array = 0 will return the complete requested output range.
options.convert_utf = 0 (the default) leave UTF-8 encoded text strings read from a spreadsheet untouched. Usually this works well as the Octave terminal usually knows how to display UTF-8 encoded strings - but note that Octve itself has limited support for processing multibyte-character strings. Windows 10 has proper support for UTF-8 in the cmd.exe terminal (used by Octave); but older Windows versions may need a conversion step:
options.convert_utf = 1 currently invokes conversion functions utf82unicode.m (when reading from spreadsheet) or unicode2utf8 (when writing to spreadsheet). This can be useful when the strings in Octave that are intended to be written to spreadsheet file contain characters outside the range [32:127]; Excel and LibreOffice cannot process spreadsheets containing single characters outside that range.
MATLAB COMPATIBILITY AND SOME GOTCHAS
xlsread, xlswrite and xlsfinfo are for the most part Matlab-compatible. Some small differences are mentioned below. When using the Java interfaces Octave supplies some formula manipulation support.
xlsread
Matlab's xlsread flags some spreadsheet errors, Octave's just returns blank cells.
Individual spreadsheet cells containing erroneous stuff are transferred to Octave as NaNs. But not all errors can be catched. E.g., spreadsheet cells showing #Value# in LibreOffice Calc often contain invalid formulas but may have a 0 (null) value stored in the value fields. It is rarely possible to catch this as there is no run-time formula evaluator (yet) in ODF Toolkit nor jOpenDocument (like there is in Apache POI for Excel).
Octave's xlsread (and for that matter, xlsfinfo as well) returns info about the actual (rather than the requested) cell range where the data came from. Personally I find it very useful to know from what part of a worksheet the data originate so I've put quite some effort in it :-)
Matlab can't, due to Excel automatically trimming returned arrays from empty outer columns and rows. Octave is more clever but the Visual Basic call used for determining the actually used range has some limitations: (1) it relies on cached range values and thus may be out-of-date, and (2) it counts empty formatted cells too. When using ActiveX/COM, if octave's xlsfinfo.m returns wrong data ranges it is most often an overestimation.
Matlab's xlsread ignores all non-numeric data values outside the smallest rectangle encompassing all numerical values. Octave's xlsread doesn't. This means that Matlab ignores all row/column headers, not very user-friendly IMO.
Matlab's xlsread returns strings for cells containing date values. This makes for endless if-then-elseif-else-end constructs to catch all expected date formats. Internally date are stored as doubles with an epoch of 31 Dec. 1899. Octave's xlsread and xls2oct just return those numerical data (where 0 = 1/1/1900 you can easily transfer them into proper Octave date values yourself by adding 693960. Note that only dates after March 1, 1900 make proper sense because Excel erroneously assumes 1900 to be a leap year.
In .ods file dates are stored as text strings rather than numerical values. Octave reads them into datenums with an epoch of Jan. 1, 0000.
Note that you can get an interesting confusing with regard to dates when reading .ods files and then writing them to disk s .xls or .xlsx files, or vice versa.
xlswrite
Octave's xlswrite works on systems w/o Excel support, Matlab's doesn't (properly).
When specifying a sheet number larger than the number of existing sheets in an .xls file, Matlab's xlswrite adds empty sheets until the new sheet number is created; Octave's xlswrite only adds one sheet called "Sheet<number>" where <number> is the specified sheet number.
Even better (IMO) while M's xlswrite always creates Sheet1/Sheet2/Sheet3 when creating a new spreadsheet, Octave's xlswrite only creates the requested worksheet. (Did you know that you can instruct Excel to create spreadsheets with just one, or any number of, worksheets? Look in Tools | Options, General tab.)
Oh and octave doesn't touch the "active sheet" - but that's not automatically an advantage.
If the specified write range is larger than the actual data array, Matlab's xlswrite adds #N/A cells to fill up the lowermost rows and rightmost columns; octave-forge's xlswrite doesn't.
When writing datenums to disk, xlswrite (and oct2xls) doesn't morph them into proper Excel date values. The reason is that neither Octave nor Matlab have date types and conversely, Excel only has double, logical or text types and distinguishes dates from double values solely through formatting. And writing formatting isn't implemented for xlswrite.
xlsfinfo
When invoking Excel/COM interface, Octave's xlsfinfo also echoes the type of sheet (worksheet, chart), not just the sheet names. Using Java I haven't found similar functionality (yet).
Octave's xlsfinfo also shows (and returns) the range of the smallest rectangle encompassing all occupied data ranges in each sheet.
COMPARISON OF INTERFACES & USAGE
The OCT or native Octave interface is completely under control of Octave (-Forge) developers. Currently it only offers support for .ods (relatively slow), .gnumeric (faster) and OOXML (relatively fast). An immense advantage is that no other external software is required.
However, all this comes at a price. Parsing xml trees into rectangular arrays is not quite straightforward and the other way round can be a real nightmare.
OOXML (.xlx, .xlsm) files are merely g-zipped directory trees containing XML files. But that's the easy part. Internally all these XML files are cross-linked by various XML tags and especially the XML files that contain the data are extremely complicated. Octave reads those XML files using regular expressions; XML gurus will frown here but using regexps is extremely fast. OTOH it is also fragile as the order of XML tags and subnodes may differ from file to file. However, until now we've seen no problems.
.ods files which are also (zipped) archives are different yet equally complicated. Unlike OOXML or gnumeric, .ods spreadsheet cells internally have no cell address tags so developers have to set up their own cell address bookkeeping; regular expressions are of little use here. While reading ODS is doable, writing implies checking whether cells already exist explicitly (in table:table-cells) or implicitly (in number-columns-repeated or number-rows-repeated nodes) or not at all yet in which case you'll need to add various types of parent nodes. Inserting new cells (nodes) or deleting nodes implies rebuilding possibly large parts of the tree in memory - nothing for the faint-of-heart. This is the reason that I/O to/from .ods with the OCT interface is quite slow.
Gnumeric files are the easiest to read and write and like OOXML regular expressions work well and fast. A particular gotcha with gnumeric is that no cached data values are stored in the file. That means that Octave can't read formula results as hey just don't exist in the file; you really need Gnumeric itself for that. The reason is (as far as I could deduce from their support mailing lists) that the Gnumeric developers figured that files might be 30 % larger and they deemed that too much at the time.
So, after reading the above you might appreciate that the io package can also invoke pre-baked libraries that simply shield away the gory details. Most if not all open-source ones are Java based and therefore platform-independent. Read on:
ODF Toolkit (ODFDOM) is the one that gives the best (but slow) results at present for .ods. ODF Toolkit up til 0.7.5 did little to hide the gory details for the developers. Only with ODFToolkit (odfdom) 0.8.6, 0.8.7 and 0.8.8 things have been simplified for developers.
Unfortunately, with odftoolkit-0.6.0-incubating and odftoolkit-0.6.1-incubating (corresponding to odfdom-0.8.9 and 0.8.10) unresolved dependencies ("jenasin") have been introduced that break their functionality for Octave.
The jOpenDocument interface for .ods is more promising (and currently the fastest for not too big spreadsheets), as it does shield the XML tree details and presents to developers something which looks like a spreadsheet model. However, unfortunately the developers decided to shield essential methods by making them 'protected' (e.g. the vital getCellType). jOpenDocument does support writing. But OTOH many obvious methods are still lacking and formula support is absent (although announced for future version 1.4). And last (but not least) the jOpenDocument developers state that their development is primarily driven by requests from customers who pay for support. I do sympathize with this business model but for Octave needs this may hamper progress for a while. The last (and recommended) release was 1.4-rc2 from 2014.
Apache POI is based on the OpenOffice.org I/O Excel r/w routines. It is more versatile than JExcelAPI (below); while it doesn't support BIFF5 it does support BIFF8 (Excel 97 2003) and OOXML (Excel 2007).
It is slower than native JXL let alone Excel & COM but it features active formula evaluation, although still not *all* Excel functions have been implemented (a daunting task for the POI devs, as it is hard to keep up with MS here). I've made the relevant subfunction (xls2jpoi2oct) fall back to cached formula results (and yield a suitable warning) for non-implemented Excel functions while reading Excel files.
JExcelAPI (for .xls) is proven technology but switching between reading and writing is quite involved and memory-hungry when processing large spreadsheets. As the docs state, JExcelAPI is optimized for reading and it does do that well - but still slower than e.g., OpenXLS.
The fact that upon a switch from reading to writing the existing spreadsheet on disk is overwritten in place by a blank one and that you can only get the contents back wen writing out all of the changes is worrying - and any change after the first write() is lost as a next write() doesn't seem to work, worse yet, you may completely loose the spreadsheet in question. The first is by JExcelAPI design, the second is probably a bug (in octave-forge/Java or JExcelAPI ? I don't know). Adding data to existing spreadsheets does work, but IMO undue user confidence is needed.
JExcelAPI supports BIFF5 (only reading) and BIFF8 (Excel 95 and Excel 97-2003, respectively). Upon overwriting, BIFF5 spreadsheets are converted silently to BIFF8.
JexcelAPI, unlike ApachePOI, doesn't evaluate functions while reading but instead relies on cached results (i.e. results computed by Excel itself). Depending on Excel settings ("Automatic calculation" ON or OFF) this may or may not yield incorrect (or expected) results.
OpenXLS (an open source version of Extentech's commercial Java-xls product) is still a bit experimental. It seems to work faster than JExcelAPI, but it has other issues - i.e., processing of OOXML files is still unreliable. In addition OpenXLS scatters Extentech.tmp files here and there. For .xls (BIFF8) it works OK; in fact it is the fastest Java-based option for not too big .xls (BIFF8) file I/O.
UNO (invoking OpenOffice.org (OOo) or LibreOffice (LO) or clones behind the scenes, a la ActiveX) is experimental. It works FAST (i.e., once OOo itself is loaded and initialized which can take some time) and can process much larger spreadsheets than the other Java-based interfaces because the data are not entered in the JVM but in OOo's own memory.
A big stumbling block is that odsclose() on a UNO xls or ods struct will kill ALL OpenOffice.org invocations, also those that were not related to Octave! This is due to UNO-Java limitations. In fact this is the reason UNO is still considered experimental
The underlying issue is that after Octave started an Libreoffice invocation, Libreoffice must be closed for Octave to be able to exit; otherwise Octave will wait for LO to shut down before it can terminate itself. So Octave must kill LO to be able to terminate.
A way out hasn't been found yet and may even not exist.
Using Excel itself (through COM / ActiveX on Windows systems) is probably the most robust and versatile and especially FAST option. There's one gotcha: in case of some type of COM errors Excel will keep running invisibly and turn into a hidden "zombie" process; you can only end it through Task Manager.
A tiny problem is that one cannot find out easily through COM what file types are supported; xls, wks, wk1, xlsx, etc.; modern Excel versions can read .ods.
Another -obvious- limitation is that COM Excel access only works on Windows systems where Excel is installed.
All in all, of the three Java options I'd prefer Apache POI rather than OpenXLS or JexcelAPI. But the latter is indispensable for BIFF5 formats. Once UNO is stable it is to be preferred as it can read ALL file formats supported by OOo (viz. wk1, ods, xlsx, sxc, ...). If you need to process really large spreadsheets, UNO is by far the fastest option (behind COM on Windows systems), but for smaller spreadsheets you'll find that the other interfaces are more efficient.
The OCT interface (native Octave calls) is by far the fastest for OOXML, the only Octave option for gnumeric, but for ODS it is still slower than COM/ActiveX or UNO. OCT write support is available for OOXML, ODS 1.2 and gnumeric.
Some notes on the choice for Java:
It saves a LOT of development time to use ready-baked Java classes rather than developing your own routines and thus effectively reinvent the wheel.
A BIG advantage is that a Java-based solution is platform-independent ("portable").
The Java classes offer much more options than just reading and writing. Formatting, recalculation options, hiding/merging cell ranges, etc.
But Java is known to be not very conservative with resources, especially not when processing XML-based formats.
So Java is a compromise between portability and rapid development time versus capacity (and speed).
But IMO data sets larger than 5.106 cells should not be kept in spreadsheets anyway. Better use real databases for such data sets.
A NOTE ON JAVA MEMORY USAGE
Java memory pool allocation size
The Java virtual machine (JVM), when initialized by octave, reserves one big chunk of your computer's RAM in which all Java classes and methods etc. are to be loaded: the java memory pool. It does this because Java has a very sophisticated "garbage collection" system. This part of memory is where the Java-based XLS/ODS octave routines live and keep their variables etc.
For transferring large pieces of information to and from spreadsheets you might hit the limits of this pool. E.g. to be able to handle I/O of an array of around 500,000 cells a memory pool size of 512 MB is needed.
The memory size can be increased by inserting a file called "java.opts" (without quotes) in the directory ./share/octave//java (where the script file javaclasspath.m is located; try "which javaclasspath" in an Octave terminal to get the proper location), containing just the following lines:
-Xms16m
-Xmx512m
(where 16 = initial size, 512 = maximum size (in this example), m stands for Megabyte. This maximum is system-dependent. E.g., I have a 1 GB setting).
For further details consult the Octave manual, "Java Interface", "FAQ", "How can I handle memory limitations?"
After processing a large chunk of spreadsheet information you might notice that octave's memory footprint does not shrink so it looks like Java's memory pool does not shrink back; but rest assured, the memory footprint is the allocated (reserved) memory size, not the actual used size. After the JVM has done its garbage collection, only the so-called "working set" of the memory allocation is really in use and that is a trimmed-down part of the memory allocation pool. On Windows systems it often suffices to minimize the octave terminal for a few seconds to get a more reasonable memory footprint.
As of April 2011 a special purpose setup file has been included in the io package (chk_spreadsheet_support.m) in which error checking and troubleshooting have been automated; it has evolved over time with core Octave itself.
When running it with the second input argument (debug level) set to 3 a lot of useful, hopefully self-explanatory diagnostic output will be printed to screen.
DEVELOPMENT
xlsopen / xlsclose and friends have been written so that adding other interfaces (Perl? ...?) should be very easily accomplished. xlsopen.m merely needs two stanzas, xlsfinfo.m, xls2oct.m, oct2xls.m and getusedrange.m each need an additional elseif stanza, and xlsclose.m needs a small stanza for closing the pointer struct and writing to disk.
The real work lies in creating the relevant __<INTF>_spsh_open__.m & __<INTF>_spsh_close__.m, __<INTF>_spsh2oct__.m & __<INTF>_oct2spsh__.m, __<INTF>_spsh_info__.m, and __<INTF>_getusedrange__.m subfunction scripts in the ./private subdir, but that need not be really hard, depending on the interface support libraries' quality and documentation. The function scripts in the ./private subdir provide for ample examples.
Separating the file access functions and the actual reading/writing from/to the workbook in memory has made developer's life (I mean: my time developing this stuff) much easier.
Some other options for development (who?):
Speeding up, especially Java worksheet/cell access. For cracks, not me. Presently each spreadheet cell is read or written individually; maybe there's a way to treat several cells at once. But the problem is undoubtedly how to translate possibly heterogeneous Java array structures into Octave heterogeneous cell arrays.
Using ActiveX/COM an entire array is handed as an object from Excel to Octave and parsed in the Octave world; using OCT a worksheet is scanned using a regular expression for each data type in one fell swoop, and spreadsheets usually only have a limited number of data types (just double, text, logical, and some derived types).
Automatic conversion of spreadsheet date/time values into Octave ones and vice versa (adding or subtracting 636960 in case of ActiveX/COM). But then again Excel's dates are 01-01-1900 based ("epoch"; Octave's epoch is 0-0-0000) and buggy (Excel thinks 1900 is a leap year), and I sometimes have to use dates from before 1900. Maybe as an option?
The again each spreadsheet interface support SW has its own date representation and epoch which makes Matlab compatibility over all interfaces an elusive goal.
Creating spreadsheet graphs (a significant enterprise to write from scratch).
Enjoy!
Philip Nienhuis, February 22, 2020
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The GNU General Public License is a free, copyleft license for
software and other kinds of works.
The licenses for most software and other practical works are designed
to take away your freedom to share and change the works. By contrast,
the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom
to share and change all versions of a program---to make sure it remains
free software for all its users. We, the Free Software Foundation,
use the GNU General Public License for most of our software; it
applies also to any other work released this way by its authors. You
can apply it to your programs, too.
When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you
have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for
them if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you
want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new
free programs, and that you know you can do these things.
To protect your rights, we need to prevent others from denying you
these rights or asking you to surrender the rights. Therefore, you
have certain responsibilities if you distribute copies of the
software, or if you modify it: responsibilities to respect the freedom
of others.
For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether
gratis or for a fee, you must pass on to the recipients the same
freedoms that you received. You must make sure that they, too,
receive or can get the source code. And you must show them these
terms so they know their rights.
Developers that use the GNU GPL protect your rights with two steps:
(1) assert copyright on the software, and (2) offer you this License
giving you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify it.
For the developers' and authors' protection, the GPL clearly explains
that there is no warranty for this free software. For both users' and
authors' sake, the GPL requires that modified versions be marked as
changed, so that their problems will not be attributed erroneously to
authors of previous versions.
Some devices are designed to deny users access to install or run
modified versions of the software inside them, although the
manufacturer can do so. This is fundamentally incompatible with the
aim of protecting users' freedom to change the software. The
systematic pattern of such abuse occurs in the area of products for
individuals to use, which is precisely where it is most unacceptable.
Therefore, we have designed this version of the GPL to prohibit the
practice for those products. If such problems arise substantially in
other domains, we stand ready to extend this provision to those
domains in future versions of the GPL, as needed to protect the
freedom of users.
Finally, every program is threatened constantly by software patents.
States should not allow patents to restrict development and use of
software on general-purpose computers, but in those that do, we wish
to avoid the special danger that patents applied to a free program
could make it effectively proprietary. To prevent this, the GPL
assures that patents cannot be used to render the program non-free.
The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and
modification follow.
@heading TERMS AND CONDITIONS
@enumerate 0
@item Definitions.
``This License'' refers to version 3 of the GNU General Public License.
``Copyright'' also means copyright-like laws that apply to other kinds
of works, such as semiconductor masks.
``The Program'' refers to any copyrightable work licensed under this
License. Each licensee is addressed as ``you''. ``Licensees'' and
``recipients'' may be individuals or organizations.
To ``modify'' a work means to copy from or adapt all or part of the work
in a fashion requiring copyright permission, other than the making of
an exact copy. The resulting work is called a ``modified version'' of
the earlier work or a work ``based on'' the earlier work.
A ``covered work'' means either the unmodified Program or a work based
on the Program.
To ``propagate'' a work means to do anything with it that, without
permission, would make you directly or secondarily liable for
infringement under applicable copyright law, except executing it on a
computer or modifying a private copy. Propagation includes copying,
distribution (with or without modification), making available to the
public, and in some countries other activities as well.
To ``convey'' a work means any kind of propagation that enables other
parties to make or receive copies. Mere interaction with a user
through a computer network, with no transfer of a copy, is not
conveying.
An interactive user interface displays ``Appropriate Legal Notices'' to
the extent that it includes a convenient and prominently visible
feature that (1) displays an appropriate copyright notice, and (2)
tells the user that there is no warranty for the work (except to the
extent that warranties are provided), that licensees may convey the
work under this License, and how to view a copy of this License. If
the interface presents a list of user commands or options, such as a
menu, a prominent item in the list meets this criterion.
@item Source Code.
The ``source code'' for a work means the preferred form of the work for
making modifications to it. ``Object code'' means any non-source form
of a work.
A ``Standard Interface'' means an interface that either is an official
standard defined by a recognized standards body, or, in the case of
interfaces specified for a particular programming language, one that
is widely used among developers working in that language.
The ``System Libraries'' of an executable work include anything, other
than the work as a whole, that (a) is included in the normal form of
packaging a Major Component, but which is not part of that Major
Component, and (b) serves only to enable use of the work with that
Major Component, or to implement a Standard Interface for which an
implementation is available to the public in source code form. A
``Major Component'', in this context, means a major essential component
(kernel, window system, and so on) of the specific operating system
(if any) on which the executable work runs, or a compiler used to
produce the work, or an object code interpreter used to run it.
The ``Corresponding Source'' for a work in object code form means all
the source code needed to generate, install, and (for an executable
work) run the object code and to modify the work, including scripts to
control those activities. However, it does not include the work's
System Libraries, or general-purpose tools or generally available free
programs which are used unmodified in performing those activities but
which are not part of the work. For example, Corresponding Source
includes interface definition files associated with source files for
the work, and the source code for shared libraries and dynamically
linked subprograms that the work is specifically designed to require,
such as by intimate data communication or control flow between those
subprograms and other parts of the work.
The Corresponding Source need not include anything that users can
regenerate automatically from other parts of the Corresponding Source.
The Corresponding Source for a work in source code form is that same
work.
@item Basic Permissions.
All rights granted under this License are granted for the term of
copyright on the Program, and are irrevocable provided the stated
conditions are met. This License explicitly affirms your unlimited
permission to run the unmodified Program. The output from running a
covered work is covered by this License only if the output, given its
content, constitutes a covered work. This License acknowledges your
rights of fair use or other equivalent, as provided by copyright law.
You may make, run and propagate covered works that you do not convey,
without conditions so long as your license otherwise remains in force.
You may convey covered works to others for the sole purpose of having
them make modifications exclusively for you, or provide you with
facilities for running those works, provided that you comply with the
terms of this License in conveying all material for which you do not
control copyright. Those thus making or running the covered works for
you must do so exclusively on your behalf, under your direction and
control, on terms that prohibit them from making any copies of your
copyrighted material outside their relationship with you.
Conveying under any other circumstances is permitted solely under the
conditions stated below. Sublicensing is not allowed; section 10
makes it unnecessary.
@item Protecting Users' Legal Rights From Anti-Circumvention Law.
No covered work shall be deemed part of an effective technological
measure under any applicable law fulfilling obligations under article
11 of the WIPO copyright treaty adopted on 20 December 1996, or
similar laws prohibiting or restricting circumvention of such
measures.
When you convey a covered work, you waive any legal power to forbid
circumvention of technological measures to the extent such
circumvention is effected by exercising rights under this License with
respect to the covered work, and you disclaim any intention to limit
operation or modification of the work as a means of enforcing, against
the work's users, your or third parties' legal rights to forbid
circumvention of technological measures.
@item Conveying Verbatim Copies.
You may convey verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you
receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and
appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice;
keep intact all notices stating that this License and any
non-permissive terms added in accord with section 7 apply to the code;
keep intact all notices of the absence of any warranty; and give all
recipients a copy of this License along with the Program.
You may charge any price or no price for each copy that you convey,
and you may offer support or warranty protection for a fee.
@item Conveying Modified Source Versions.
You may convey a work based on the Program, or the modifications to
produce it from the Program, in the form of source code under the
terms of section 4, provided that you also meet all of these
conditions:
@enumerate a
@item
The work must carry prominent notices stating that you modified it,
and giving a relevant date.
@item
The work must carry prominent notices stating that it is released
under this License and any conditions added under section 7. This
requirement modifies the requirement in section 4 to ``keep intact all
notices''.
@item
You must license the entire work, as a whole, under this License to
anyone who comes into possession of a copy. This License will
therefore apply, along with any applicable section 7 additional terms,
to the whole of the work, and all its parts, regardless of how they
are packaged. This License gives no permission to license the work in
any other way, but it does not invalidate such permission if you have
separately received it.
@item
If the work has interactive user interfaces, each must display
Appropriate Legal Notices; however, if the Program has interactive
interfaces that do not display Appropriate Legal Notices, your work
need not make them do so.
@end enumerate
A compilation of a covered work with other separate and independent
works, which are not by their nature extensions of the covered work,
and which are not combined with it such as to form a larger program,
in or on a volume of a storage or distribution medium, is called an
``aggregate'' if the compilation and its resulting copyright are not
used to limit the access or legal rights of the compilation's users
beyond what the individual works permit. Inclusion of a covered work
in an aggregate does not cause this License to apply to the other
parts of the aggregate.
@item Conveying Non-Source Forms.
You may convey a covered work in object code form under the terms of
sections 4 and 5, provided that you also convey the machine-readable
Corresponding Source under the terms of this License, in one of these
ways:
@enumerate a
@item
Convey the object code in, or embodied in, a physical product
(including a physical distribution medium), accompanied by the
Corresponding Source fixed on a durable physical medium customarily
used for software interchange.
@item
Convey the object code in, or embodied in, a physical product
(including a physical distribution medium), accompanied by a written
offer, valid for at least three years and valid for as long as you
offer spare parts or customer support for that product model, to give
anyone who possesses the object code either (1) a copy of the
Corresponding Source for all the software in the product that is
covered by this License, on a durable physical medium customarily used
for software interchange, for a price no more than your reasonable
cost of physically performing this conveying of source, or (2) access
to copy the Corresponding Source from a network server at no charge.
@item
Convey individual copies of the object code with a copy of the written
offer to provide the Corresponding Source. This alternative is
allowed only occasionally and noncommercially, and only if you
received the object code with such an offer, in accord with subsection
6b.
@item
Convey the object code by offering access from a designated place
(gratis or for a charge), and offer equivalent access to the
Corresponding Source in the same way through the same place at no
further charge. You need not require recipients to copy the
Corresponding Source along with the object code. If the place to copy
the object code is a network server, the Corresponding Source may be
on a different server (operated by you or a third party) that supports
equivalent copying facilities, provided you maintain clear directions
next to the object code saying where to find the Corresponding Source.
Regardless of what server hosts the Corresponding Source, you remain
obligated to ensure that it is available for as long as needed to
satisfy these requirements.
@item
Convey the object code using peer-to-peer transmission, provided you
inform other peers where the object code and Corresponding Source of
the work are being offered to the general public at no charge under
subsection 6d.
@end enumerate
A separable portion of the object code, whose source code is excluded
from the Corresponding Source as a System Library, need not be
included in conveying the object code work.
A ``User Product'' is either (1) a ``consumer product'', which means any
tangible personal property which is normally used for personal,
family, or household purposes, or (2) anything designed or sold for
incorporation into a dwelling. In determining whether a product is a
consumer product, doubtful cases shall be resolved in favor of
coverage. For a particular product received by a particular user,
``normally used'' refers to a typical or common use of that class of
product, regardless of the status of the particular user or of the way
in which the particular user actually uses, or expects or is expected
to use, the product. A product is a consumer product regardless of
whether the product has substantial commercial, industrial or
non-consumer uses, unless such uses represent the only significant
mode of use of the product.
``Installation Information'' for a User Product means any methods,
procedures, authorization keys, or other information required to
install and execute modified versions of a covered work in that User
Product from a modified version of its Corresponding Source. The
information must suffice to ensure that the continued functioning of
the modified object code is in no case prevented or interfered with
solely because modification has been made.
If you convey an object code work under this section in, or with, or
specifically for use in, a User Product, and the conveying occurs as
part of a transaction in which the right of possession and use of the
User Product is transferred to the recipient in perpetuity or for a
fixed term (regardless of how the transaction is characterized), the
Corresponding Source conveyed under this section must be accompanied
by the Installation Information. But this requirement does not apply
if neither you nor any third party retains the ability to install
modified object code on the User Product (for example, the work has
been installed in ROM).
The requirement to provide Installation Information does not include a
requirement to continue to provide support service, warranty, or
updates for a work that has been modified or installed by the
recipient, or for the User Product in which it has been modified or
installed. Access to a network may be denied when the modification
itself materially and adversely affects the operation of the network
or violates the rules and protocols for communication across the
network.
Corresponding Source conveyed, and Installation Information provided,
in accord with this section must be in a format that is publicly
documented (and with an implementation available to the public in
source code form), and must require no special password or key for
unpacking, reading or copying.
@item Additional Terms.
``Additional permissions'' are terms that supplement the terms of this
License by making exceptions from one or more of its conditions.
Additional permissions that are applicable to the entire Program shall
be treated as though they were included in this License, to the extent
that they are valid under applicable law. If additional permissions
apply only to part of the Program, that part may be used separately
under those permissions, but the entire Program remains governed by
this License without regard to the additional permissions.
When you convey a copy of a covered work, you may at your option
remove any additional permissions from that copy, or from any part of
it. (Additional permissions may be written to require their own
removal in certain cases when you modify the work.) You may place
additional permissions on material, added by you to a covered work,
for which you have or can give appropriate copyright permission.
Notwithstanding any other provision of this License, for material you
add to a covered work, you may (if authorized by the copyright holders
of that material) supplement the terms of this License with terms:
@enumerate a
@item
Disclaiming warranty or limiting liability differently from the terms
of sections 15 and 16 of this License; or
@item
Requiring preservation of specified reasonable legal notices or author
attributions in that material or in the Appropriate Legal Notices
displayed by works containing it; or
@item
Prohibiting misrepresentation of the origin of that material, or
requiring that modified versions of such material be marked in
reasonable ways as different from the original version; or
@item
Limiting the use for publicity purposes of names of licensors or
authors of the material; or
@item
Declining to grant rights under trademark law for use of some trade
names, trademarks, or service marks; or
@item
Requiring indemnification of licensors and authors of that material by
anyone who conveys the material (or modified versions of it) with
contractual assumptions of liability to the recipient, for any
liability that these contractual assumptions directly impose on those
licensors and authors.
@end enumerate
All other non-permissive additional terms are considered ``further
restrictions'' within the meaning of section 10. If the Program as you
received it, or any part of it, contains a notice stating that it is
governed by this License along with a term that is a further
restriction, you may remove that term. If a license document contains
a further restriction but permits relicensing or conveying under this
License, you may add to a covered work material governed by the terms
of that license document, provided that the further restriction does
not survive such relicensing or conveying.
If you add terms to a covered work in accord with this section, you
must place, in the relevant source files, a statement of the
additional terms that apply to those files, or a notice indicating
where to find the applicable terms.
Additional terms, permissive or non-permissive, may be stated in the
form of a separately written license, or stated as exceptions; the
above requirements apply either way.
@item Termination.
You may not propagate or modify a covered work except as expressly
provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise to propagate or
modify it is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under
this License (including any patent licenses granted under the third
paragraph of section 11).
However, if you cease all violation of this License, then your license
from a particular copyright holder is reinstated (a) provisionally,
unless and until the copyright holder explicitly and finally
terminates your license, and (b) permanently, if the copyright holder
fails to notify you of the violation by some reasonable means prior to
60 days after the cessation.
Moreover, your license from a particular copyright holder is
reinstated permanently if the copyright holder notifies you of the
violation by some reasonable means, this is the first time you have
received notice of violation of this License (for any work) from that
copyright holder, and you cure the violation prior to 30 days after
your receipt of the notice.
Termination of your rights under this section does not terminate the
licenses of parties who have received copies or rights from you under
this License. If your rights have been terminated and not permanently
reinstated, you do not qualify to receive new licenses for the same
material under section 10.
@item Acceptance Not Required for Having Copies.
You are not required to accept this License in order to receive or run
a copy of the Program. Ancillary propagation of a covered work
occurring solely as a consequence of using peer-to-peer transmission
to receive a copy likewise does not require acceptance. However,
nothing other than this License grants you permission to propagate or
modify any covered work. These actions infringe copyright if you do
not accept this License. Therefore, by modifying or propagating a
covered work, you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so.
@item Automatic Licensing of Downstream Recipients.
Each time you convey a covered work, the recipient automatically
receives a license from the original licensors, to run, modify and
propagate that work, subject to this License. You are not responsible
for enforcing compliance by third parties with this License.
An ``entity transaction'' is a transaction transferring control of an
organization, or substantially all assets of one, or subdividing an
organization, or merging organizations. If propagation of a covered
work results from an entity transaction, each party to that
transaction who receives a copy of the work also receives whatever
licenses to the work the party's predecessor in interest had or could
give under the previous paragraph, plus a right to possession of the
Corresponding Source of the work from the predecessor in interest, if
the predecessor has it or can get it with reasonable efforts.
You may not impose any further restrictions on the exercise of the
rights granted or affirmed under this License. For example, you may
not impose a license fee, royalty, or other charge for exercise of
rights granted under this License, and you may not initiate litigation
(including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that
any patent claim is infringed by making, using, selling, offering for
sale, or importing the Program or any portion of it.
@item Patents.
A ``contributor'' is a copyright holder who authorizes use under this
License of the Program or a work on which the Program is based. The
work thus licensed is called the contributor's ``contributor version''.
A contributor's ``essential patent claims'' are all patent claims owned
or controlled by the contributor, whether already acquired or
hereafter acquired, that would be infringed by some manner, permitted
by this License, of making, using, or selling its contributor version,
but do not include claims that would be infringed only as a
consequence of further modification of the contributor version. For
purposes of this definition, ``control'' includes the right to grant
patent sublicenses in a manner consistent with the requirements of
this License.
Each contributor grants you a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free
patent license under the contributor's essential patent claims, to
make, use, sell, offer for sale, import and otherwise run, modify and
propagate the contents of its contributor version.
In the following three paragraphs, a ``patent license'' is any express
agreement or commitment, however denominated, not to enforce a patent
(such as an express permission to practice a patent or covenant not to
sue for patent infringement). To ``grant'' such a patent license to a
party means to make such an agreement or commitment not to enforce a
patent against the party.
If you convey a covered work, knowingly relying on a patent license,
and the Corresponding Source of the work is not available for anyone
to copy, free of charge and under the terms of this License, through a
publicly available network server or other readily accessible means,
then you must either (1) cause the Corresponding Source to be so
available, or (2) arrange to deprive yourself of the benefit of the
patent license for this particular work, or (3) arrange, in a manner
consistent with the requirements of this License, to extend the patent
license to downstream recipients. ``Knowingly relying'' means you have
actual knowledge that, but for the patent license, your conveying the
covered work in a country, or your recipient's use of the covered work
in a country, would infringe one or more identifiable patents in that
country that you have reason to believe are valid.
If, pursuant to or in connection with a single transaction or
arrangement, you convey, or propagate by procuring conveyance of, a
covered work, and grant a patent license to some of the parties
receiving the covered work authorizing them to use, propagate, modify
or convey a specific copy of the covered work, then the patent license
you grant is automatically extended to all recipients of the covered
work and works based on it.
A patent license is ``discriminatory'' if it does not include within the
scope of its coverage, prohibits the exercise of, or is conditioned on
the non-exercise of one or more of the rights that are specifically
granted under this License. You may not convey a covered work if you
are a party to an arrangement with a third party that is in the
business of distributing software, under which you make payment to the
third party based on the extent of your activity of conveying the
work, and under which the third party grants, to any of the parties
who would receive the covered work from you, a discriminatory patent
license (a) in connection with copies of the covered work conveyed by
you (or copies made from those copies), or (b) primarily for and in
connection with specific products or compilations that contain the
covered work, unless you entered into that arrangement, or that patent
license was granted, prior to 28 March 2007.
Nothing in this License shall be construed as excluding or limiting
any implied license or other defenses to infringement that may
otherwise be available to you under applicable patent law.
@item No Surrender of Others' Freedom.
If conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or
otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not
excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot convey
a covered work so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under
this License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a
consequence you may not convey it at all. For example, if you agree
to terms that obligate you to collect a royalty for further conveying
from those to whom you convey the Program, the only way you could
satisfy both those terms and this License would be to refrain entirely
from conveying the Program.
@item Use with the GNU Affero General Public License.
Notwithstanding any other provision of this License, you have
permission to link or combine any covered work with a work licensed
under version 3 of the GNU Affero General Public License into a single
combined work, and to convey the resulting work. The terms of this
License will continue to apply to the part which is the covered work,
but the special requirements of the GNU Affero General Public License,
section 13, concerning interaction through a network will apply to the
combination as such.
@item Revised Versions of this License.
The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions
of the GNU General Public License from time to time. Such new
versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may
differ in detail to address new problems or concerns.
Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program
specifies that a certain numbered version of the GNU General Public
License ``or any later version'' applies to it, you have the option of
following the terms and conditions either of that numbered version or
of any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. If
the Program does not specify a version number of the GNU General
Public License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free
Software Foundation.
If the Program specifies that a proxy can decide which future versions
of the GNU General Public License can be used, that proxy's public
statement of acceptance of a version permanently authorizes you to
choose that version for the Program.
Later license versions may give you additional or different
permissions. However, no additional obligations are imposed on any
author or copyright holder as a result of your choosing to follow a
later version.
@item Disclaimer of Warranty.
THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY
APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT
HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM ``AS IS'' WITHOUT
WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR
A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND
PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE
DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR
CORRECTION.
@item Limitation of Liability.
IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING
WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MODIFIES AND/OR
CONVEYS THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES,
INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT
NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR
LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM
TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER
PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
@item Interpretation of Sections 15 and 16.
If the disclaimer of warranty and limitation of liability provided
above cannot be given local legal effect according to their terms,
reviewing courts shall apply local law that most closely approximates
an absolute waiver of all civil liability in connection with the
Program, unless a warranty or assumption of liability accompanies a
copy of the Program in return for a fee.
@end enumerate
@heading END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
@heading How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these
terms.
To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest
to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
state the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least
the ``copyright'' line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
@smallexample
@var{one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.}
Copyright (C) @var{year} @var{name of author}
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at
your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program. If not, see @url{http://www.gnu.org/licenses/}.
@end smallexample
Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.
If the program does terminal interaction, make it output a short
notice like this when it starts in an interactive mode:
@smallexample
@var{program} Copyright (C) @var{year} @var{name of author}
This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type @samp{show w}.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions; type @samp{show c} for details.
@end smallexample
The hypothetical commands @samp{show w} and @samp{show c} should show
the appropriate parts of the General Public License. Of course, your
program's commands might be different; for a GUI interface, you would
use an ``about box''.
You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or school,
if any, to sign a ``copyright disclaimer'' for the program, if necessary.
For more information on this, and how to apply and follow the GNU GPL, see
@url{http://www.gnu.org/licenses/}.
The GNU General Public License does not permit incorporating your
program into proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine
library, you may consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary
applications with the library. If this is what you want to do, use
the GNU Lesser General Public License instead of this License. But
first, please read @url{http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/why-not-lgpl.html}.
io-2.7.0/doc/PaxHeaders/version.texi 0000644 0000000 0000000 00000000062 15004725440 014335 x ustar 00 20 atime=1746119456
30 ctime=1746119684.377810908
io-2.7.0/doc/version.texi 0000644 0001750 0001750 00000000127 15004725440 014651 0 ustar 00philip philip @c autogenerated from Makefile
@set VERSION 2.7.0
@set PACKAGE io
@set DATE 2025-05-01
io-2.7.0/doc/PaxHeaders/mkqhcp.py 0000644 0000000 0000000 00000000062 15004725440 013612 x ustar 00 20 atime=1746119456
30 ctime=1746119684.377810908
io-2.7.0/doc/mkqhcp.py 0000755 0001750 0001750 00000013313 15004725440 014132 0 ustar 00philip philip #!/usr/bin/python3
## mkqhcp.py
## Version 1.0.4
## Copyright 2022-2023 John Donoghue
##
## This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it
## under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
## the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
## (at your option) any later version.
##
## This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
## WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
## MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
## GNU General Public License for more details.
##
## You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
## along with this program. If not, see
## .
import sys
import os
import re
def process(name):
with open(name + ".qhcp", 'wt') as f:
f.write ('\n')
f.write ('\n')
f.write (' \n')
f.write (' \n')
f.write (' \n')
f.write (' {0}.qhp\n'.format(name))
f.write (' \n'.format(name))
f.write (' \n')
f.write (' \n')
f.write (' \n')
f.write (' {0}.qch\n'.format(name))
f.write (' \n')
f.write (' \n')
f.write ('\n')
title = name
pat_match = re.compile(r".*(?P<title>[^<]+).*")
with open(name + ".html", 'rt') as fin:
# find html
for line in fin:
line = line.strip()
e = pat_match.match(line)
if e:
title = e.group("title")
break
# section
h2_match = re.compile(r'.*