Wave reference vs. inline definition

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Wed, 10/05/2016 - 06:56 am

Prompted by [1] I've learned something new today. And that is that you can define a wave inline when calling a function.

The following is all under IP7.

Function/WAVE someFunction()
    return $""
End

Function compareWaves(wv1, wv2)
    WAVE/Z wv1, wv2
End

Function DoStuff()

    Make/T wv1 = {"a","b","c"}
    compareWaves(somefunction(),  wv1)

    Make   wv2 = {1, 2, 3}
    compareWaves(somefunction(),  wv2)

    compareWaves(somefunction(), {1, 2, 3})
End


That is pretty handy!

What is a bit unexpected is that the following does not compile

    compareWaves(somefunction(), {"a","b","c"} )


I need to define a function like

Function compareWavesText(wv1, wv2)
    WAVE/Z/T wv1, wv2
End

Function DoStuff()

    compareWavesText(somefunction(), {"a","b","c"} )
End


so that it compiles.

Is this difference in wave reference and inline handling for text waves something likely to stay or a bug worth fixing?

1: https://github.com/t-b/igor-unit-testing-framework/pull/4