[Gretl-devel] Re: the getinfo() function: request for comments

The trouble, IMO, is this: the minimal description of an on-the fly series with formula "log(x)" as "log(x)" would, at best, be available to getinfo() only immediately after the series was created, at the same level of function execution. Once such a series is forwarded as a function argument, it becomes a citizen of the callee's dataset, but there's no basis for a memory of how it was created. As things stand, remembering the description of a series requires that the series has an associated VARINFO struct, which is realized only for series that have dataset membership. But an on-the-fly series argument to a function acquires such membership only once it is accepted as a valid argument -- which, it seems to me, is too late to be of any use. Of course, if you can suggest a feasible mechanism whereby this could work, I'll happily stand corrected.