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+++ b/scripts/plot/gcf.m
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+## Copyright (C) 2005 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 2, 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, write to the Free
+## Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA
+## 02110-1301, USA.
+
+## -*- texinfo -*-
+## @deftypefn {Function File} {} gcf ()
+## Return the current figure handle.
+## @end deftypefn
+
+## Author: jwe, Bill Denney
+
+function h = gcf ()
+
+  if (nargin == 0)
+    h = get (0, "currentfigure");
+    if (isempty (h) || h == 0)
+      ## We only have a root figure object, so create a new figure
+      ## object and make it the current figure.
+      h = figure (1);
+    endif
+  else
+    print_usage ();
+  endif
+
+endfunction