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Hints for Efficient Balisc/Scilab 6.x Coding

• Use type instead of typeof, whenever possible.
• Use nargin, nargout instead of argn.
• Use x==[] instead of isempty(x), whenever possible.
• Use x<>[] instead of ~isempty(x), whenever possible.
• Use issquare instead of size, whenever possible.
• Use length(x) instead of size(x,'*'), whenever possible.
• Use x(length(x)) or x(size(x,'*') instead of x($), whenever possible.
• Use &&, || instead of &, |, whenever possible.
• Use ~(A || B) instead of ~A && ~B (cf. De Morgan's Laws).
• Use ~(A && B) instead of ~A || ~B (cf. De Morgan's Laws).
• Use execstr instead of evstr, whenever possible.
• Use tokens instead of strsplit, whenever possible.
• Use matrix(A,length(A),1) instead of A(:), whenever possible.
• Use A.B instead of A("B") or getfield("B",A), whenever possible.
• Use ones(m,n).*.A instead of repmat(A,m,n), whenever possible.
• Use size(x)==1 instead of isscalar(x), whenever possible.
• Use A=[] instead of A(:)=[], whenever possible.
• Use .* and ./ instead * of / for integer types, whenever possible.
• Use a & b instead of bitand(a,b), whenever possible.
• Use a | b instead of bitor(a,b), whenever possible.
• Use (a | b) & ~(a & b) instead of bitxor(a,b), whenever possible.

"Fifty" Ways to Kill Your Scilab 6.x (and Sometimes even Balisc)

1. %t./%f
2. sleep 1
3. 1:null()
4. 1./int8(0)
5. 1:insert()
6. sparse(1,1)
7. int8(0):0:0
8. mprintf("%%")
9. msprintf("%%")
10. [null(),null()]
11. triu([%s+%i,1;1,1])
12. covStart(["a";"b"])
13. [insert(),insert()]
14. strsubst("","","","r")
15. strsubst('aaa','aa','a')
16. S=struct();S(2,2)=struct()
17. surf(1:2e3,1:2e3,(1:2e3)'*(1:2e3))
18. f=gcf();xdel();save(TMPDIR+"/f.sod","f")
19. function f(),ver()(1,2),end;macr2tree(f)
20. a={%s};p=TMPDIR+"/a.sod";save(p,"a");listvarinfile(p)

to be continued ...

Predefined (and Protected) Variables Unique to Balisc

• %balisc

  • Useful to check whether it is Balisc, e.g. use exists("%balisc").
  • Returns a single integer (e.g. 0), which indicates the version of Balisc

Functions Unique to Balisc

• isprotected, protect, unprotect

  • Provide an interface to the protection mechanism of arbitrary variables
  • They supersede predef and are easy to use (cf. #420)