Just noting syntax change...

[Daniel J Sebald]

Here are a couple lines:

     seconds = str2num(rin);
     if (seconds ~= [])

that I think used to work equivalent to:

     seconds = str2num(rin);
     if (~isempty(seconds))

However, the test:

     seconds ~= []

now produces

     ans = [](0x0)

that is,

octave:21> seconds = str2num("4.55")
seconds = 4.5500
octave:22> seconds ~= []
ans = [](0x0)

I'm changing over to "isempty" under the assumption that "seconds ~= []" 
is no longer valid syntax.

Dan