--- a/doc/interpreter/oop.txi
+++ b/doc/interpreter/oop.txi
@@ -578,8 +578,8 @@
 @item @tab a / b @tab mrdivide (a, b) @tab Matrix right division operator @tab
 @item @tab a .\ b @tab ldivide (a, b) @tab Element-wise left division operator @tab
 @item @tab a \ b @tab mldivide (a, b) @tab Matrix left division operator @tab
-@item @tab a .^ b @tab ldivide (a, b) @tab Element-wise power operator @tab
-@item @tab a ^ b @tab mldivide (a, b) @tab Matrix power operator @tab
+@item @tab a .^ b @tab power (a, b) @tab Element-wise power operator @tab
+@item @tab a ^ b @tab mpower (a, b) @tab Matrix power operator @tab
 @item @tab a < b @tab lt (a, b) @tab Less than operator @tab
 @item @tab a <= b @tab le (a, b) @tab Less than or equal to operator @tab
 @item @tab a > b @tab gt (a, b) @tab Greater than operator @tab

--- a/scripts/miscellaneous/private/__xzip__.m
+++ b/scripts/miscellaneous/private/__xzip__.m
@@ -80,14 +80,16 @@
              commandname, status);
     endif
 
-    if (nargout > 0)
-      if (nargin == 5)
+    if (nargin == 5)
+      if (nargout > 0)
         entries = cellfun(
             @(x) fullfile (outdir, sprintf ("%s.%s", x, extension)),
             f, "uniformoutput", false);
-      else
-        movefile (cellfun(@(x) sprintf ("%s.%s", x, extension), f,
-                          "uniformoutput", false), cwd);
+      endif
+    else
+      movefile (cellfun(@(x) sprintf ("%s.%s", x, extension), f,
+                        "uniformoutput", false), cwd);
+      if (nargout > 0)
         ## FIXME this does not work when you try to compress directories
         entries  = cellfun(@(x) sprintf ("%s.%s", x, extension),
                            files, "uniformoutput", false);

--- a/scripts/miscellaneous/tar.m
+++ b/scripts/miscellaneous/tar.m
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@
     files = cellstr (files);
   endif
 
-  if (ischar (tarfile) && iscellstr (files) && ischar (root))
+  if (! (ischar (tarfile) && iscellstr (files) && ischar (root)))
     error ("tar: all arguments must be character strings");
   endif
 

--- a/scripts/strings/str2num.m
+++ b/scripts/strings/str2num.m
@@ -17,7 +17,8 @@
 ## <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 
 ## -*- texinfo -*-
-## @deftypefn {Function File} {} str2num (@var{s})
+## @deftypefn {Function File} {@var{x} =} str2num (@var{s})
+## @deftypefnx {Function File} {[@var{x}, @var{state}] =} str2num (@var{s})
 ## Convert the string (or character array) @var{s} to a number (or an
 ## array).  Examples:
 ##
@@ -33,6 +34,10 @@
 ## @end group
 ## @end example
 ##
+## The optional second output, @var{state}, is logically true when the
+## coversion is successful. If the conversion fails the numeric output,
+## @var{n}, is empty and @var{state} is false.
+##
 ## @strong{Caution:} As @code{str2num} uses the @code{eval} function
 ## to do the conversion, @code{str2num} will execute any code contained
 ## in the string @var{s}.  Use @code{str2double} instead if you want to
@@ -42,16 +47,18 @@
 
 ## Author: jwe
 
-function m = str2num (s)
+function [m, state] = str2num (s)
 
   if (nargin == 1 && ischar (s))
     [nr, nc] = size (s);
     sep = ";";
     sep = sep (ones (nr, 1), 1);
     s = sprintf ("m = [%s];", reshape ([s, sep]', 1, nr * (nc + 1)));
-    eval (s, "m = [];");
+    state = true;
+    eval (s, "m = []; state = false;");
     if (ischar (m))
       m = [];
+      state = false;
     endif
   else
     print_usage ();
@@ -65,3 +72,8 @@
 
 %!error str2num ("string", 1);
 
+%!test
+%! [x, state] = str2num ("pi");
+%! assert (state)
+%! [x, state] = str2num (tmpnam);
+%! assert (! state)

--- a/src/Makefile.am
+++ b/src/Makefile.am
@@ -541,7 +541,7 @@
     ../libcruft/libcruft.la \
     ../libcruft/libranlib.la \
     ../libgnu/libgnu.la \
-    $(FFTW_XLDFLAGS) $(FFTW_XLIBS)
+    $(FFTW_XLDFLAGS) $(FFTW_XLIBS) \
     $(QHULL_LDFLAGS) $(QHULL_LIBS) \
     $(QRUPDATE_LDFLAGS) $(QRUPDATE_LIBS) \
     $(SPARSE_XLDFLAGS) $(SPARSE_XLIBS) \

--- a/src/oct-parse.yy
+++ b/src/oct-parse.yy
@@ -4215,12 +4215,26 @@
 @noindent\n\
 calls the function @code{acos} with the argument @samp{-1}.\n\
 \n\
-The function @code{feval} is necessary in order to be able to write\n\
-functions that call user-supplied functions, because Octave does not\n\
-have a way to declare a pointer to a function (like C) or to declare a\n\
-special kind of variable that can be used to hold the name of a function\n\
-(like @code{EXTERNAL} in Fortran).  Instead, you must refer to functions\n\
-by name, and use @code{feval} to call them.\n\
+The function @code{feval} can also be used with function handles of\n\
+any sort. @xref{Function Handles} Historically, @code{feval} was\n\
+the only way to call user-supplied functions in strings, but\n\
+function handles are now preferred due to the cleaner syntax they\n\
+offer. For example,\n\
+\n\
+@example\n\
+@group\n\
+@var{f} = @@exp;\n\
+feval (@var{f}, 1)\n\
+     @result{} 2.7183\n\
+@var{f} (1)\n\
+     @result{} 2.7183\n\
+@end group\n\
+@end example\n\
+\n\
+@noindent\n\
+are equivalent ways to call the function referred to by @var{f}. If it\n\
+cannot be predicted beforehand that @var{f} is a function handle or the\n\
+function name in a string, @code{feval} can be used instead.\n\
 @end deftypefn")
 {
   octave_value_list retval;