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+## Copyright (C) 2008 Ben Abbott
+## 
+## This program 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 of the License, or
+## (at your option) any later version.
+## 
+## This program 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} {} cla ()
+## @deftypefnx {Function File} {} cla ("reset")
+## @deftypefnx {Function File} {} cla (@var{hax})
+## @deftypefnx {Function File} {} cla (@var{hax}, "reset")
+## Delete the children of the current axes with visible handles.
+## If @var{hax} is specified and is an axes object handle, operate on it
+## instead of the current axes.  If the optional argument @code{"reset"}
+## is specified, also delete the children with hidden handles.
+## @seealso{clf}
+## @end deftypefn
+
+## Author: Ben Abbott <bpabbott@mac.com>
+## Created: 2008-10-03
+
+## PKG_ADD: mark_as_command cla
+
+function cla (varargin)
+
+  if (nargin > 2)
+    print_usage ();
+  elseif (nargin > 1)
+    if (ishandle (varargin{1})
+	&& strcmp (get (varargin{1}, "type"), "axes")
+	&& ischar (varargin{2}) && strcmpi (varargin{2}, "reset"))
+      oldhax = gca;
+      hax = varargin{1};
+      do_reset = true;
+    else
+      print_usage ();
+    endif
+  elseif (nargin == 1)
+    if (ishandle (varargin{1})
+	&& strcmp (get (varargin{1}, "type"), "axes"))
+      oldhax = gca;
+      hax = varargin{1};
+      do_reset = false;
+    elseif (ischar (varargin{1}) && strcmpi (varargin{1}, "reset"))
+      hax = gca;
+      oldhax = hax;
+      do_reset = true;
+    else
+      print_usage ();
+    endif
+  else
+    hax = gca;
+    oldhax = hax;
+    do_reset = false;
+  end
+
+  if (do_reset)
+    hc = get (hax, "children");
+  else
+    hc = findobj (get (hax, "children"), "flat", "visible", "on");
+    hc = setdiff (hc, hax);
+  end
+
+  ## Delete the children of the axis.
+  delete (hc);
+
+  ## FIXME: The defaults should be "reset()" below, but so far there is
+  ## no method to determine the defaults, much less return an object's
+  ## properties to their default values.  Instead make a close
+  ## approximation.
+
+  axes (hax);
+  axis auto
+
+  ## Set the current axis back to where it was upon entry.
+  axes (oldhax);
+
+endfunction