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+## Copyright (C) 2008 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} backend (@var{name})
+## @deftypefnx {Function File} backend (@var{hlist}, @var{name})
+## Change the default graphics backend to @var{name}. If the backend is
+## not already loaded, it is first initialized (initialization is done
+## through the execution of __init_@var{name}__).
+##
+## @var{hlist} is a list of figure handles. When given, this function
+## only switches the default backend for the corresponding figures.
+## @seealso{available_backends}
+## @end deftypefn
+
+function backend (varargin)
+
+  name = "";
+  hlist = [];
+
+  if (nargin == 1)
+    if (ischar (varargin{1}))
+      name = varargin{1};
+    else
+      error ("backend: invalid backend name");
+    endif
+  elseif (nargin == 2)
+    if (isnumeric (varargin{1}) && ischar (varargin{2}))
+      hlist = varargin{1};
+      name = varargin{2};
+    elseif (ischar (varargin{2}))
+      error ("backend: invalid handle list");
+    else
+      error ("backend: invalid backend name");
+    endif
+  else
+    print_usage ();
+  endif
+
+  if (! any (strcmp (available_backends (), name)))
+    feval (["__init_", name, "__"]);
+    if (! any (strcmp (available_backends (), name)))
+      error ("backend: backend was not correctly registered");
+    endif
+  endif
+
+  if (isempty (hlist))
+    set (0, "defaultfigure__backend__", name);
+  else
+    for h = hlist(:)'
+      set (h, "__backend__", name);
+    endfor
+  endif
+
+endfunction