Hi, I've attached a badly specified mle model which provokes the error. I don't know whether one can find a well specified model which has these problems, too. The script is named test_bfgs.inp. I've attached two more patches. The first one adds a function debugger to gretl. It adds 4 new commands to gretl: debug and undebug for initiating and stopping debugging of a user defined function and continue and next (aliases c and n) which allow to step through a function. After having these problems with my code last Thursday/Friday I thought that a real debugger would be really helpful. If you have a large programm set debug 2 is not sufficient anymore. The debugger is not thoroughly tested. There are two things that I don't like about it. First of all a callback into the client application is needed in order to talk with the users out of the depths of libgretl. Perhaps I can extend the PRN structure somehow in order to have a more coherent interface. Another problem here is that I didn't find a way to transport the callback address to exec_user_func. I extended libset, but I think libset was meant only to care for user editable properties. I would be happy to receive comments about this from you. If I have time in the next days I will try to implement breakpoints and "step into function"-commands. Up to now the debugging feature is only available to gretlcli users. Below you find a sample debug session: script: set debug 2 function fred(scalar a) scalar d=a+1 scalar f=1 scalar g=f return scalar d end function debug fred scalar q=fred(2) scalar q=fred(2) session: ? run test.inp /home/chris/dev/gretl-cvs8/test.inp ? set debug 2 ? function fred(scalar a) #scalar q=fred(2) #print q ? debug fred ? scalar q=fred(2) *** executing function fred ? scalar d=a+1 Generated scalar d = 3 Debugging fred, line 0 ? d 3 ? d=4 Replaced scalar d = 4 ? n ? scalar f=1 Generated scalar f = 1 Debugging fred, line 1 ? n ? scalar g=f Generated scalar g = 1 Debugging fred, line 2 ? c Generated scalar q = 4 ? scalar q=fred(2) *** executing function fred ? scalar d=a+1 Generated scalar d = 3 Debugging fred, line 0 ? c ? scalar f=1 Generated scalar f = 1 ? scalar g=f Generated scalar g = 1 Replaced scalar q = 3 Done The second patches is more like a proof of concept. I really liked the integration of R into gretl via the foreign code block. But up to now it has 2 problems: It is slow and for all foreign blocks you need gretl glue code which transports parameters and results into and out of R. The second patch speeds up the execution of R functions by calling directly into libr. I have extended the makefiles in order to link against libR. The position of libr is hand coded in order to match the location on my ubuntu system. Another feature of this patch is the seamless integration of R functions into gretl. After defining a function in a gretl foreign-block, it can be called from within gretl using standard genr statements: No more glue needed. But this functionality is still a bit experimental. I haven't tested this much too. Another problem is that using libr may have some side-effects. For example R installs its own segfault-handler. This feature, too, is only avaiable to gretlcli users. Below you find again an example: script: nulldata 10 foreign language=RLib abc<-function(q) { z=q+1 invisible(z) } end foreign scalar b=abc(2) session: ? nulldata 10 periodicity: 1, maxobs: 10, observations range: 1-10 ? foreign language=RLib ? abc<-function(q) { ? z=q+1 ? invisible(z) ? } ? end foreign + z=q+1 + invisible(z) + } ? scalar b=abc(2) abc(2) Generated scalar b = 3 Done Christoph ________________________________________ Von: gretl-devel-bounces(a)lists.wfu.edu [gretl-devel-bounces(a)lists.wfu.edu] im Auftrag von Allin Cottrell [cottrell(a)wfu.edu] Gesendet: Samstag, 4. Juli 2009 21:21 An: Gretl development Betreff: Re: AW: AW: [Gretl-devel] bfgs: failed to match initial value On Sat, 4 Jul 2009, Sven Schreiber wrote: Yes, I think it would still be useful to have a testcase which provokes that error message. Allin. _______________________________________________ Gretl-devel mailing list Gretl-devel(a)lists.wfu.edu http://lists.wfu.edu/mailman/listinfo/gretl-devel