--- /dev/null
+## Copyright (C) 2012 Michael Goffioul
+##
+## 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{p}, @var{args}] =} __uiobject_split_args__ (@var{who}, @var{args}, @var{parent_type}, @var{use_gcf})
+## @end deftypefn
+
+## Author: goffioul
+
+function [parent, args] = __uiobject_split_args__ (who, in_args, parent_type = {}, use_gcf = 1)
+
+ parent = [];
+ args = {};
+ offset = 1;
+
+ if (! isempty (in_args))
+ if (ishandle (in_args{1}))
+ parent = in_args{1};
+ offset = 2;
+ elseif (! ischar (in_args{1}))
+ error ("%s: invalid parent handle.", who);
+ endif
+
+ args = in_args(offset:end);
+ endif
+
+ if (rem (length (args), 2))
+ error ("%s: expecting PROPERTY/VALUE pairs", who);
+ endif
+
+ if (! isempty (args))
+ i = find (strcmpi (args(1:2:end), "parent"), 1, "first");
+ if (! isempty (i) && length (args) >= 2*i)
+ parent = args{2*i};
+ if (! ishandle (parent))
+ error ("%s: invalid parent handle.", who);
+ endif
+ args([2*i-1, 2*i]) = [];
+ endif
+ endif
+
+ if (! isempty (parent))
+ if (! isempty (parent_type) && isempty (find (strcmpi (get (parent, "type"), parent_type))))
+ error ("%s: invalid parent, the parent type must be: %s", ...
+ who, sprintf ("%s, ", parent_type{:})(1:end-2));
+ endif
+ elseif (use_gcf)
+ parent = gcf ();
+ endif
+
+endfunction