--- /dev/null
+## Copyright (C) 2005-2012 John W. Eaton
+##
+## This file is part of Octave.
+##
+## Octave is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+## under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+## the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at
+## your option) any later version.
+##
+## Octave is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
+## WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+## MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
+## General Public License for more details.
+##
+## You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+## along with Octave; see the file COPYING. If not, see
+## <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+## -*- texinfo -*-
+## @deftypefn {Function File} {} axes ()
+## @deftypefnx {Function File} {} axes (@var{property}, @var{value}, @dots{})
+## @deftypefnx {Function File} {} axes (@var{h})
+## Create an axes object and return a handle to it.
+## @end deftypefn
+
+## Author: jwe
+
+function h = axes (varargin)
+
+ if (nargin == 0 || nargin > 1)
+ ## Create an axes object.
+ idx = find (strcmpi (varargin(1:2:end), "parent"), 1, "first");
+ if (! isempty (idx) && length (varargin) >= 2*idx)
+ cf = varargin{2*idx};
+ varargin([2*idx-1, 2*idx]) = [];
+ else
+ cf = gcf ();
+ endif
+ tmp = __go_axes__ (cf, varargin{:});
+ if (__is_handle_visible__ (tmp))
+ set (ancestor (cf, "figure"), "currentaxes", tmp);
+ endif
+ else
+ ## arg is axes handle.
+ tmp = varargin{1};
+ if (length(tmp) == 1 && ishandle (tmp)
+ && strcmp (get (tmp, "type"), "axes"))
+ if (__is_handle_visible__ (tmp))
+ parent = ancestor (tmp, "figure");
+ set (0, "currentfigure", parent);
+ set (parent, "currentaxes", tmp);
+ endif
+ else
+ error ("axes: expecting argument to be a scalar axes handle");
+ endif
+ endif
+
+ if (nargout > 0)
+ h = tmp;
+ endif
+
+endfunction