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+## Copyright (C) 2008  David Bateman
+##
+## 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} {} datetick (@var{form})
+## @deftypefnx {Function File} {} datetick (@var{axis}, @var{form})
+## @deftypefnx {Function File} {} datetick (@dots{}, "keeplimits")
+## @deftypefnx {Function File} {} datetick (@dots{}, "keepticks")
+## @deftypefnx {Function File} {} datetick (@dots{ax}, @dots{})
+## Adds date formatted tick labels to an axis. The axis the apply the
+## ticks to is determined by @var{axis} that can take the values "x",
+## "y" or "z". The default value is "x". The formating of the labels is
+## determined by the variable @var{form}, that can either be a string in
+## the format needed by @code{dateform}, or a positive integer that can
+## be accepted by @code{datestr}.
+## @seealso{datenum, datestr}
+## @end deftypefn
+
+function datetick (varargin)
+
+  [h, varargin, nargin] = __plt_get_axis_arg__ ("datetick", varargin{:});
+
+  if (nargin < 1)
+    print_usage ();
+  else
+    oldh = gca ();
+    unwind_protect
+      axes (h);
+      __datetick__ (varargin{:});
+    unwind_protect_cleanup
+      axes (oldh);
+    end_unwind_protect
+  endif
+endfunction
+
+%!demo
+%! yr = 1900:10:2000;
+%! pop = [76.094, 92.407, 106.461, 123.077 131.954, 151.868, 179.979, ...
+%!        203.984, 227.225, 249.623, 282.224];
+%! plot (datenum (yr, 1, 1), pop);
+%! title ("US population (millions)");
+%! xlabel ("Year");
+%! datetick ("x", "YYYY");
+
+function __datetick__ (varargin)
+
+  keeplimits = false;
+  keeptick = false;
+  idx = [];
+  for i = 1 : nargin
+    arg = varargin {i};
+    if (ischar (arg))
+      if (strcmpi (arg, "keeplimits"))
+	keeplimits = true;
+	idx = [idx, i];
+      elseif (strcmpi (arg, "keeptick"))
+	keeptick = true;
+	idx = [idx, i];
+      endif
+    endif
+  endfor
+
+  varargin(idx) = [];
+  nargin = length (varargin);
+  form = [];
+  ax = "x";
+
+  if (nargin != 0)
+    arg = varargin{1};
+    if (ischar(arg) && (strcmp (arg, "x") || strcmp (arg, "y") || 
+			strcmp (arg, "z")))
+      ax = arg;
+      if (nargin > 1)
+	form = varargin{2};
+	varargin(1:2) = [];
+      else
+	varargin(1) = [];
+      endif
+    else
+      form = arg;
+      varargin(1) = [];
+    endif
+  endif
+
+  ## Don't publish the existence of this variable for use with dateaxis
+  if (length (varargin) > 0)
+    startdate = varargin{1};
+  else
+    startdate = [];
+  endif
+
+  if (isnumeric (form))
+    if (! isscalar (form) || floor (form) != form || form < 0)
+      error ("datetick: expecting form argument to be a positive integer");
+    endif
+  elseif (! ischar (form) && !isempty (form))
+    error ("datetick: expecting valid date format string");
+  endif
+
+  if (keeptick)
+    ticks = get (gca (), strcat (ax, "tick"))
+  else
+    ## Need to do our own axis tick position calculation as
+    ## year, etc, don't fallback on nice datenum values.
+    objs = findall (gca());
+    xmax = NaN;
+    xmin = NaN;
+    for i = 1 : length (objs)
+      fld = get (objs (i));
+      if (isfield (fld, strcat (ax, "data")))
+	xdata = getfield (fld, strcat (ax, "data"))(:);
+	xmin = min (xmin, min (xdata));
+	xmax = max (xmax, max (xdata));
+      endif
+    endfor
+
+    if (isnan (xmin) || isnan (xmax))
+      xmin = 0;
+      xmax = 1;
+    elseif (xmin == xmax)
+      xmax = xmin + 1;
+    endif
+
+    N = 3;
+    if (xmax - xmin < N)
+      ## Day scale or less
+      if (xmax - xmin < N / 24 / 60 / 60) 
+	scl = 1 / 24 / 60 / 60;
+      elseif (xmax - xmin < N / 24 / 6)
+	scl = 1 / 24 / 60;
+      else
+	scl = 1 / 24;
+      endif
+      sep = __calc_tick_sep__ (xmin / scl , xmax / scl);
+      xmin = sep * floor (xmin / scl / sep);
+      xmax = sep * ceil (xmax / scl / sep);
+      nticks = (xmax - xmin) / sep + 1;
+      xmin *= scl;
+      xmax *= scl;
+    else
+      [ymin, mmin, dmin] = datevec (xmin);
+      [ymax, mmax, dmax] = datevec (xmax);
+      minyear = ymin + (mmin - 1) / 12 + (dmin - 1) / 12 / 30;    
+      maxyear = ymax + (mmax - 1) / 12 + (dmax - 1) / 12 / 30;    
+      minmonth = mmin + (dmin - 1) / 30;    
+      maxmonth = (ymax  - ymin) * 12 + mmax + (dmax - 1) / 30;    
+
+      if (maxmonth - minmonth < N)
+	sep = __calc_tick_sep__ (xmin, xmax);
+	xmin = sep * floor (xmin / sep);
+	xmax = sep * ceil (xmax / sep);
+	nticks = (xmax - xmin) / sep + 1;
+      elseif (maxyear - minyear < N)
+	sep = __calc_tick_sep__ (minmonth , maxmonth);
+	xmin = datenum (ymin, sep * floor (minmonth / sep), 1);
+	xmax = datenum (ymin, sep * ceil (maxmonth / sep), 1);
+	nticks = ceil (maxmonth / sep) - floor (minmonth / sep) + 1;
+      else
+	sep = __calc_tick_sep__ (minyear , maxyear);
+	xmin = datenum (sep * floor (minyear / sep), 1, 1);
+	xmax = datenum (sep * ceil (maxyear / sep), 1, 1);
+	nticks = ceil (maxyear / sep) - floor (minyear / sep) + 1;
+      endif
+    endif
+    ticks = xmin + [0 : nticks - 1] / (nticks - 1) * (xmax - xmin);
+  endif
+
+  if (isempty (form))
+    r = max(ticks) - min(ticks);
+    if r < 10/60/24
+      ## minutes and seconds
+      form = 13;
+    elseif r < 2
+      ## hours
+      form = 15;
+    elseif r < 15
+      ## days
+      form = 8;
+    elseif r < 365
+      ## months
+      form = 6;
+    elseif r < 90*12
+      ## quarters
+      form = 27;
+    else
+      ## years
+      form = 10;
+    endif
+  endif
+
+  if (length (ticks) == 6)
+    ## Careful that its not treated as a datevec
+    if (! isempty (startdate))
+      sticks = strvcat (datestr (ticks(1:end-1) - ticks(1) + startdate, form),
+			datestr (ticks(end) - ticks(1) + startdate, form));
+    else
+      sticks = strvcat (datestr (ticks(1:end-1), form), 
+			datestr (ticks(end), form));
+    endif
+  else
+    if (! isempty (startdate))
+      sticks = datestr (ticks - ticks(1) + startdate, form);
+    else
+      sticks = datestr (ticks, form);
+    endif
+  endif
+
+  sticks = mat2cell (sticks, ones (rows (sticks), 1), columns (sticks));
+
+  if (keeptick)
+    if (keeplimits)
+      set (gca(), strcat (ax, "ticklabel"), sticks);
+    else
+      set (gca(), strcat (ax, "ticklabel"), sticks, strcat (ax, "lim"), 
+	   [min(ticks), max(ticks)]);
+    endif
+  else
+    if (keeplimits)
+      set (gca(), strcat (ax, "tick"), ticks, strcat (ax, "ticklabel"), sticks);
+    else
+      set (gca(), strcat (ax, "tick"), ticks, strcat (ax, "ticklabel"), sticks,
+	   strcat (ax, "lim"), [min(ticks), max(ticks)]);
+    endif
+  endif
+endfunction
+
+function [a, b] = __magform__ (x)
+  if (x == 0)
+    a = 0;
+    b = 0;
+  else
+    l = log10 (abs (x));
+    r = fmod (l, 1);
+    a = 10 .^ r;
+    b = fix (l - r);
+    if (a < 1)
+      a *= 10;
+      b -= 1;
+    endif
+    if (x < 0)
+      a = -a;
+    endif
+  endif
+endfunction
+
+## A translation from Tom Holoryd's python code at
+## http://kurage.nimh.nih.gov/tomh/tics.py
+function sep = __calc_tick_sep__ (lo, hi)
+  persistent sqrt_2  = sqrt (2.0);
+  persistent sqrt_10 = sqrt (10.0);
+  persistent sqrt_50 = sqrt (50.0);
+
+  ticint = 5;
+
+  ## Reference: Lewart, C. R., "Algorithms SCALE1, SCALE2, and
+  ## SCALE3 for Determination of Scales on Computer Generated
+  ## Plots", Communications of the ACM, 10 (1973), 639-640.
+  ## Also cited as ACM Algorithm 463.
+
+  [a, b] = __magform__ ((hi - lo) / ticint);
+
+  if (a < sqrt_2)
+    x = 1;
+  elseif (a < sqrt_10)
+    x = 2;
+  elseif (a < sqrt_50)
+    x = 5;
+  else
+    x = 10;
+  endif
+  sep = x * 10 .^ b;
+endfunction
+