Enable function dispatching by barewords

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Name of feature to implement: Dispatching by barewords

Matlab/Octave (or both): I think it's only Matlab (some of it works in
Octave too)

Component: Parser

Other Information:

Functions should be able to be dispatched by barewords:

{{{
quit();
quit;    % Should be same!
}}}

Octave and Matlab allow this. However, Matlab also seems to take this a
step further and allows parameters to be passed as barewords too:

{{{
help("whatever")
help whatever   % Should be same!

Foo("This is a string")
Foo This is a string  % Should be same!
}}}

At the moment, the parser treats all bare words as identifiers in an
expression. Need to modify this so we go through the normal sub_or_var
logic and differentiate these calls as function calls (unless a lexical
variable of that name exists). Cases:

{{{
x      % variable x, if exists. Function x otherwise. handled in sub_or_var
x()    % Same
x args % always function x. Treated as x("args")
}}}

Make sure to modify the term rule to force all identifiers to be treated as
sub_or_var instead of primary or identifier. This will enable predefined
constants like pi() to be used in expressions as just "pi".

Original issue reported on code.google.com by wknight8...@gmail.com on 3 Mar 2009 at 8:28

[GoogleCodeExporter]

As of r135, most of my concerns above are resolved and the system is basically
implemented. We can create other specific tickets for individual issues related 
to this.

Original comment by wknight8...@gmail.com on 19 Mar 2009 at 10:43

• Changed state: Fixed