Babel evaluation of Calc block not working, bug in Calc?

Babel evaluation of Calc block not working, bug in Calc?

[H. Dieter Wilhelm]

Hello Orgers,

please consider: Emacs -Q and evaluate the following

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
(org-babel-do-load-languages
 'org-babel-load-languages
 '((calc . t)
   (emacs-lisp . t)
   ))
#+END_SRC

#+RESULTS:
| (calc . t) | (emacs-lisp . t) |

The following works as expected

#+BEGIN_SRC calc :var V=3
V + 4
#+END_SRC

But now we are getting: byte-code: Symbol's function definition is void:
v!

#+BEGIN_SRC calc :var v=3
v + 4
#+END_SRC

Calc thinks that the variable v contains a function even though nothing
should be undefined for v and when trying debug-on-entry for
calc-var-value the expression (boundp v) returns t!?  I'm stuck at this
point, could you please have a look, I've no idea how to debug this
further.

GNU Emacs 24.3.93.3 (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.24.24) of
2014-09-17 on vsl28t2g With the latest org-mode from git 

Thanks
        Dieter
-- 
Best wishes
H. Dieter Wilhelm
Darmstadt, Germany

Re: Babel evaluation of Calc block not working, bug in Calc?

[Andrea Rossetti]

dieter@duenenhof-wilhelm.de (H. Dieter Wilhelm) writes:
> But now we are getting: byte-code: Symbol's function definition is void:
> v!
>
> #+BEGIN_SRC calc :var v=3
> v + 4
> #+END_SRC
>

Hello Dieter, I think I got it!

1) I see the same error message as you see, for variables with
name "v" or "var"

2) diagnosys: I see that Calc tries to avoid name collisions by
adding a "var-" prefix to variable names, and by removing it when
it needs to. (see code in functions "calc-read-var-name" and
"calc-var-name")

3) temporary workaround: try to change ":var v=3" into ":var var-v=3",
it works for me, does it work for you too?

4) proposed correction (untested, and makes sense only if workaround 
actually works): in ob-calc.el, function org-babel-execute:calc,
the invocation of "calc-store-into" could prepend 'var- to its argument

5) warning: if one applies correction 4), then workaround 3) doesn't
work anymore 

  Hope it helps and makes sense for you too, kindest regards.

 Andrea

Re: Babel evaluation of Calc block not working, bug in Calc?

[Andrea Rossetti]

Andrea Rossetti <andrea.rossetti@gmail.com> writes:
> 3) temporary workaround: try to change ":var v=3" into ":var var-v=3",
> it works for me, does it work for you too?

I'm afraid I've been a bit cryptic here.
The suggested workaround/test is: replace

#+BEGIN_SRC calc :var v=3
 v + 4
#+END_SRC

with

#+BEGIN_SRC calc :var var-v=3
 v + 4
#+END_SRC

Kindest regards, 

  Andrea

Re: Babel evaluation of Calc block not working, bug in Calc?

[H. Dieter Wilhelm]

Hello Andrea 8-)

Andrea Rossetti <andrea.rossetti@gmail.com> writes:
> Andrea Rossetti <andrea.rossetti@gmail.com> writes:
>> 3) temporary workaround: try to change ":var v=3" into ":var var-v=3",
>> it works for me, does it work for you too?
> The suggested workaround/test is: replace
>
> #+BEGIN_SRC calc :var v=3
>  v + 4
> #+END_SRC
>
> with
>
> #+BEGIN_SRC calc :var var-v=3
>  v + 4
> #+END_SRC

This is working for me as well, I think this will help me to understand
what is going on...

Thank you for you help
     Dieter

PS: Are you using Calc regularly?
-- 
Best wishes
H. Dieter Wilhelm
Darmstadt, Germany

Re: Babel evaluation of Calc block not working, bug in Calc?

[Andrea Rossetti]

Hi Dieter,

dieter@duenenhof-wilhelm.de (H. Dieter Wilhelm) writes:
> PS: Are you using Calc regularly?

Compact answer: no :(

Detailed answer: I do like Calc and Org+Babel+Calc,
but my daily job doesn't involve any maths.

The Org functions I use most frequently are:
- org-clock-in, org-clock-out, agenda view
- org-columns
- simple exports of TODOs or clocktable in HTML
  or PDF format

Kindest regards,

  Andrea

Re: Babel evaluation of Calc block not working, bug in Calc?

[H. Dieter Wilhelm]

Andrea Rossetti <andrea.rossetti@gmail.com> writes:
>> PS: Are you using Calc regularly?
> Compact answer: no :(
> Detailed answer: I do like Calc and Org+Babel+Calc,
> but my daily job doesn't involve any maths.

Then it's understandable, the UI of Calc is very fast but also very,
very abstract.

My hope is that with the Babel interface Calc can get a push.  There is
some potential, although it remains a lot to improve to have a workable
computer algebra system (CAS) in the line of Maxima, Maple, Mathematica
et al. :-|

> The Org functions I use most frequently are:
> - org-clock-in, org-clock-out, agenda view
> - org-columns
> - simple exports of TODOs or clocktable in HTML
>   or PDF format

That is the strength of Org-mode: The combination of code and beautiful
documentation. :-D

               Dieter
-- 
Best wishes
H. Dieter Wilhelm
Darmstadt, Germany