id	summary	reporter	owner	description	type	status	priority	milestone	component	version	resolution	keywords	cc
254	index_set needs a more flexible set specification interface	Gary Dixon	Eric Swenson	"The index_set command/AF would be more useful if it had a more flexible way to specify the set of numbers to be produced.  Currently it supports only a triplet specification:

{{{
Syntax:  index_set {F1} B1 {I1} ...  Fn Bn In

Syntax as active function:  [index_set {F1} B1 {I1} ...  Fn Bn In]
}}}

where F is the first integer of the desired set, B is the upper bound controlling highest element of the set, and I is the increment between set elements.  To request multiple sets created by one invocation, all three arguments must be given for each set.  If only one set is being specified, the specification may include 1, 2 or 3 arguments:


{{{
       B
     F B
     F B I
}}}

It would also be useful to use control arguments to specify which of the three elements is being given, and to allow several ways of specifying how many elements will be included in the produced set.  For example:

{{{
The following example shows three sets defined in one command.
  index_set  5   -set -to 2 -from 7   -set 1 -to -5 -by 2
  1 2 3 4 5

  7 6 5 4 3 2

  1 -1 -3 -5

The following example gives a count of set elements to be produced, rather than using an upper bound.
  index_set 3 -for 7
  3 4 5 6 7 8 9
}}}

Also, it would be useful to accept input specification values in a base other than decimal. For example
the decimal (dec) active function accepts input values ending with an optional radix indicator: b for binary input, o for octal input, and x for hexadecimal (base 16) input.

And index_set should be able to produce an output set of numbers expressed in a a different numeric 
base.

{{{
  index_set 337o -for 10
  223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232

  index_set 337o 350o -octal
  337o 340o 341o 342o 343o 344o 345o 346o 347o 350o

  index_set 337o -for 10 -oct
  337o 340o 341o 342o 343o 344o 345o 346o 347o 350o
}}}

The flexibility of receiving input values using different numeric base, and generating output values in a different base would be quite useful in environments like analyze_multics having requests that expect or accept input arguments in octal rather than decimal.
"	enhancement	closed	major	MR12.8	General	MR12.7	fixed