Hi,
  The patch allows octave to load variables from a file into a structure
variable, which is possible in Matlab. Patch is against 2.0.14. Cd to
octave source and use patch -p1

*** orig/ChangeLog	Mon Oct 30 16:49:53 2000
--- octave-2.0.14/ChangeLog	Mon Oct 30 16:52:30 2000
***************
*** 1,3 ****
--- 1,7 ----
+ Mon Oct 30 16:50:00 2000  K.M.A. Chai
+ 	* src/load-save.cc: included a quick hack in do_load(..) that allows
+ 	loading of variables from file into a structure variable, to make
+ 	octave more Matlab-compatible.
  Sun Oct  1 17:25:32 2000  K.M.A. Chai
  	* liboctave/dMatrix.h (Matrix cumprod (int dim = 0) const): Added
  	extra argument indicate the dimension along which the operation is
*** orig/src/load-save.cc	Mon Oct 30 16:47:08 2000
--- octave-2.0.14/src/load-save.cc	Mon Oct 30 16:47:01 2000
*************** Software Foundation, 59 Temple Place - S
*** 48,53 ****
--- 48,54 ----
  #include "load-save.h"
  #include "mappers.h"
  #include "oct-obj.h"
+ #include "oct-map.h"
  #include "pager.h"
  #include "pt-exp.h"
  #include "pt-fvc.h"
*************** do_load (istream& stream, const string& 
*** 1534,1539 ****
--- 1535,1541 ----
  	 int argv_idx, int argc, int nargout)
  {
    octave_value_list retval;
+   Octave_map retstruct;
  
    ostrstream output_buf;
    int count = 0;
*************** do_load (istream& stream, const string& 
*** 1608,1614 ****
  		    }
  		  else
  		    {
! 		      install_loaded_variable (force, name, tc, global, doc);
  		    }
  		}
  
--- 1610,1623 ----
  		    }
  		  else
  		    {
! 		      if(nargout==1)
! 			{
! 			  retstruct[name]=tc;
! 			}
! 		      else
! 			{
! 			  install_loaded_variable (force, name, tc, global, doc);
! 			}
  		    }
  		}
  
*************** do_load (istream& stream, const string& 
*** 1636,1641 ****
--- 1645,1655 ----
  	}
      }
  
+   if(nargout==1)
+     {
+       retval = octave_value(retstruct);
+     }
+ 
    if (list_only && count)
      {
        output_buf << ends;
*************** do_load (istream& stream, const string& 
*** 1655,1662 ****
--- 1669,1680 ----
  
  DEFUN_TEXT (load, args, nargout,
    "load [-force] [-ascii] [-binary] [-mat-binary] file [pattern ...]\n\
+    argout = load [-force] [-ascii] [-binary] [-mat-binary] file [pattern ...]\n\
  \n\
  Load variables from a file.\n\
+ \n\
+ if argout is given on the LHS, then the variables are loaded into variable argout\n\
+ as a structure.\n\
  \n\
  If no argument is supplied to select a format, load tries to read the\n\
  named file as an Octave binary, then as a .mat file, and then as an\n\