## Copyright (C) 2002 Etienne Grossmann <etienne@isr.ist.utl.pt>
##
## 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 <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

## -*- texinfo -*-
## @deftypefn{Function File} {@var{n} = } temp_name ( rootname, quick ) 
## @cindex  
## name = temp_name(rootname, quick=1) - Return a name that is not used
##
## Returns a name, suitable for defining a new function, script or global
## variable, of the form
##
##                 [rootname,number]
##
## Default rootname is "temp_name_"
##
## "quick" is an optional parameter, which defaults to 1. If it is false,
## temp_name() will find the smallest acceptable number for the name.
## Otherwise, a hopefully quicker method is used.
##
## @end deftypefn

function n = temp_name (rootname, quick)

  persistent warned = false;
  if (! warned)
    warned = true;
    warning ("Octave:deprecated-function",
             "temp_name has been deprecated, and will be removed in the future. Use `tmpnam' instead.");
  endif

  ### Keep track of previously asked names
  persistent cnt = struct ("dummy",0);

  if nargin<1 || !length(rootname), rootname = "temp_name_" ; endif

  if nargin<2, quick = 1; endif

  if quick
    if ! isfield (cnt, rootname)
      cnt.(rootname) = 0;
      c = 0 ;
    else
      c = cnt.(rootname) ;
    endif
  else
    c = 0;
  endif

  n = sprintf ([rootname,"%i"], c);

  while exist (n),
    c++ ;
    n = sprintf ([rootname,"%i"], c);
  endwhile

  if quick
    cnt.(rootname) = c ;
  endif
endfunction