--- /dev/null
+## Copyright (C) 1998-2012 Ariel Tankus
+##
+## 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} {[@var{r1}, @var{r2}, @dots{}, @var{rn}] =} deal (@var{a})
+## @deftypefnx {Function File} {[@var{r1}, @var{r2}, @dots{}, @var{rn}] =} deal (@var{a1}, @var{a2}, @dots{}, @var{an})
+##
+## Copy the input parameters into the corresponding output parameters.
+## If only one input parameter is supplied, its value is copied to each
+## of the outputs.
+##
+## For example,
+##
+## @example
+## [a, b, c] = deal (x, y, z);
+## @end example
+##
+## @noindent
+## is equivalent to
+##
+## @example
+## @group
+## a = x;
+## b = y;
+## c = z;
+## @end group
+## @end example
+##
+## @noindent
+## and
+##
+## @example
+## [a, b, c] = deal (x);
+## @end example
+##
+## @noindent
+## is equivalent to
+##
+## @example
+## a = b = c = x;
+## @end example
+## @end deftypefn
+
+## Author: Ariel Tankus
+## Author: Paul Kienzle and Etienne Grossman
+## Created: 13.11.98
+## Adapted-by: jwe
+
+function [varargout] = deal (varargin)
+
+ if (nargin == 0)
+ print_usage ();
+ elseif (nargin == 1 || nargin == nargout)
+ varargout(1:nargout) = varargin;
+ else
+ error ("deal: nargin > 1 and nargin != nargout");
+ endif
+
+endfunction
+
+%!test
+%! [a,b]=deal(1,2);
+%! assert(a,1);
+%! assert(b,2);
+%!test
+%! [a,b]=deal(1);
+%! assert(a,1);
+%! assert(b,1);