code.delx.au - gnu-emacs/blob - etc/tasks.texi

   1 \input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
   2 @c %**start of header
   3 @setfilename tasks.info
   4 @settitle GNU Task List
   5 @c UPDATE THIS DATE WHENEVER YOU MAKE CHANGES!
   6 @set lastupdate 1 February 1997
   7 @c %**end of header
   8
   9 @setchapternewpage off
  10
  11 @titlepage
  12 @title GNU Task List
  13 @author Free Software Foundation
  14 @author last updated @value{lastupdate}
  15 @end titlepage
  16
  17 @ifinfo
  18 @node Top, Preface, (dir), (dir)
  19 @top GNU Task List
  20
  21 This file is updated automatically from @file{tasks.texi}, which was
  22 last updated on @value{lastupdate}.
  23 @end ifinfo
  24
  25 @menu
  26 * Preface::
  27 * Documentation::
  28 * Unix-Related Projects::
  29 * Kernel Projects::
  30 * Extensions::
  31 * X Windows Projects::
  32 * Other Projects::
  33 * Compilers::
  34 * Games and Recreations::
  35 @end menu
  36
  37 @node Preface, Documentation, Top, Top
  38 @chapter About the GNU Task List
  39
  40 Check with @code{gnu@@prep.ai.mit.edu}, for a possibly more current
  41 copy.  You can also ftp it from a GNU FTP host in directory
  42 @file{/pub/gnu/tasks} - These files in different formats are available:
  43 @file{tasks.text}, @file{tasks.texi}, @file{tasks.info}, and
  44 @file{tasks.dvi}.  It is also available on the GNU World Wide Web
  45 server: @file{http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu}.
  46
  47 If you start working steadily on a project, please let @code{gnu@@prep}
  48 know.  We might have information that could help you; we'd also like to
  49 send you the GNU coding standards.
  50
  51 Because of the natural tendency for most volunteers to write programming
  52 tools or programming languages, we have a comparative shortage of
  53 applications useful for non-programmer users.  Therefore, we ask you to
  54 consider writing such a program.
  55
  56 In general, a new program that does a completely new job advances the
  57 GNU project more than an improvement to an existing program.
  58
  59 @node Documentation
  60 @chapter Documentation
  61
  62 We very urgently need documentation for some parts of the system
  63 that already exist or will exist very soon:
  64
  65 @itemize @bullet
  66 @item
  67 Completion of the documentation for CC-mode, a new Emacs mode for
  68 C, C++ and other languages.
  69
  70 @item
  71 A C reference manual.  (RMS made a try at one, which you could start
  72 with).
  73
  74 @item
  75 A manual for Ghostscript.
  76
  77
  78 @item
  79 A manual for TCSH.
  80
  81 @item
  82 A manual for PIC (the graphics formatting language).
  83
  84 @item
  85 A manual for Oleo.
  86
  87 @item
  88 A book on how GCC works and why various machine descriptions
  89 are written as they are.
  90
  91 @item
  92 A manual for programming X-window applications.
  93
  94 @item
  95 Manuals for various X window managers.
  96
  97 @item
  98 Reference cards for those manuals that don't have them: C
  99 Compiler, Make, Texinfo, Termcap, and maybe the C Library.
 100
 101 @item
 102 Many utilities need documentation, including @code{grep} and others.
 103 @end itemize
 104
 105 @node Unix-Related Projects
 106 @chapter Unix-Related Projects
 107
 108 @itemize @bullet
 109 @item
 110 An improved version of the POSIX utility @code{pax}.  There is one on
 111 Usenet, but it is said to be poorly written.  Talk with
 112 @code{mib@@gnu.ai.mit.edu} about this project.
 113
 114 @ignore
 115 @item
 116 Modify the GNU @code{dc} program to use the math routines of GNU
 117 @code{bc}.
 118 @end ignore
 119
 120 @item
 121 A @code{grap} preprocessor program for @code{troff}.
 122
 123 @item
 124 Various other libraries.
 125
 126 @item
 127 An emulation of SCCS that works using RCS.
 128
 129 @item
 130 Less urgent: @code{diction}, @code{explain}, and @code{style}, or
 131 something to do the same kind of job.  Compatibility with Unix is not
 132 especially important for these programs.
 133 @end itemize
 134
 135 @node Kernel Projects
 136 @chapter Kernel-Related Projects
 137
 138 @itemize @bullet
 139 @item
 140 An over-the-ethernet debugger stub that will allow the kernel to be
 141 debugged from GDB running on another machine.
 142
 143 This stub needs its own self-contained implementation of all protocols
 144 to be used, since the GNU system will use user processes to implement
 145 all but the lowest levels, and the stub won't be able to use those
 146 processes.  If a simple self-contained implementation of IP and TCP is
 147 impractical, it might be necessary to design a new, simple protocol
 148 based directly on ethernet.  It's not crucial to support high speed or
 149 communicating across gateways.
 150
 151 It might be possible to use the Mach ethernet driver code, but it would
 152 need some changes.
 153
 154 @item
 155 A shared memory X11 server to run under MACH is very desirable.  The
 156 machine specific parts should be kept well separated.
 157
 158 @item
 159 An implementation of CIFS, the ``Common Internet File System,'' for the
 160 HURD.  This protocol is an offshoot of SMB.
 161 @end itemize
 162
 163 @node Extensions
 164 @chapter Extensions to Existing GNU Software
 165
 166 @itemize @bullet
 167 @item
 168 Enhance GCC.  See files @file{PROJECTS} and @file{PROBLEMS} in the GCC
 169 distribution.
 170
 171 @item
 172 Rewrite GNU @code{sed} completely, to make it cleaner.
 173
 174 @item
 175 Rewrite Automake and Deja-GNU in Scheme, so they can run in Guile.
 176 Right now they are written in Perl and TCL, respectively.  There are
 177 also other programs, not terribly long, which we would also like
 178 to have rewritten in Scheme.
 179
 180 @item
 181 Finish the partially-implemented C interpreter project.
 182
 183 @item
 184 Help with the development of GNUStep, a GNU implementation of the
 185 OpenStep specification.
 186
 187 @item
 188 Add features to GNU Make to record the precise rule with which each file
 189 was last recompiled; then recompile any file if its rule in the makefile
 190 has changed.
 191
 192 @item
 193 Add a few features to GNU @code{diff}, such as handling large input
 194 files without reading entire files into core.
 195
 196 @item
 197 An @code{nroff} macro package to simplify @code{texi2roff}.
 198
 199 @item
 200 A queueing system for the mailer Smail that groups pending work by
 201 destination rather than by original message.  This makes it possible
 202 to schedule retries coherently for each destination.  Talk to
 203 @code{tron@@veritas.com} about this.
 204
 205 Smail also needs a new chief maintainer.
 206
 207 @item
 208 Enhanced cross-reference browsing tools.  (We now have something at
 209 about the level of @code{cxref}.)  We also could use something like
 210 @code{ctrace}.  (Some people are now working on this project.)
 211 @end itemize
 212
 213 @node X Windows Projects
 214 @chapter X Windows Projects
 215
 216 @itemize @bullet
 217 @item
 218 An emulator for Macintosh graphics calls on top of X Windows.
 219
 220 @item
 221 A music playing and editing system.
 222
 223 @item
 224 A program to edit dance notation (such as labanotation) and display
 225 dancers moving on the screen.
 226
 227 @item
 228 Port the Vibrant toolkit to work on X without using Motif.
 229
 230 @item
 231 A program to display and edit Hypercard stacks.
 232
 233 @item
 234 A paint program, supporting both bitmap-oriented operations and
 235 component-oriented operations.  @code{xpaint} exists, but isn't very
 236 usable.
 237
 238 @item
 239 A vector-based drawing program in the spirit of Adobe Illustrator
 240 and Corel Draw.
 241
 242 @item
 243 An interactive 3D modeling utility with rendering/raytracing capabilities.
 244
 245 @item
 246 A program for graphic morphing of scanned photographs.
 247 @end itemize
 248
 249 @node Other Projects
 250 @chapter Other Projects
 251
 252 If you think of others that should be added, please
 253 send them to @code{gnu@@prep.ai.mit.edu}.
 254
 255 @itemize @bullet
 256 @item
 257 A free program for public-key encryption.
 258
 259 This program should use the Diffie-Helman algorithm for public key
 260 encryption, not the RSA algorithm, because the Diffie-Helman patent in
 261 the US will expire in 1997.  It should use triple-DES, not IDEA, for
 262 block encryption because IDEA is patented in many countries and the
 263 patents will not expire soon.  In other respects, it should be like PGP.
 264
 265 This program needs to be written by someone who is not a US citizen,
 266 outside the US, to avoid problems with US export control law.
 267
 268 Many people believe that PGP is free software, but that is not actually
 269 true.  The distribution terms set by the copyright holders do not allow
 270 everyone to use and redistribute it.
 271
 272 @item
 273 A program to convert compiled programs represented in OSF ANDF
 274 (``Architecture Neutral Distribution Format'') into ANSI C.
 275
 276 @item
 277 An imitation of Page Maker or Ventura Publisher.
 278
 279 @item
 280 An imitation of @code{dbase2} or @code{dbase3} (How dbased!)
 281
 282 @item
 283 A program to reformat Fortran programs in a way that is pretty.
 284
 285 @item
 286 A bulletin board system.  There are a few free ones, but they don't have
 287 all the features that people want in such systems.  It would make sense
 288 to start with an existing one and add the other features.
 289
 290 @item
 291 A general ledger program, including support for accounts payable,
 292 account receivables, payroll, inventory control, order processing, etc.
 293
 294 @item
 295 A teleconferencing program which does the job of CU-SeeMe (which is,
 296 alas, not free software).
 297
 298 @item
 299 A program to typeset C code for printing.
 300 For ideas on what to do, see the book,
 301
 302 @display
 303 Human Factors and Typography for More Readable Programs,
 304 Ronald M. Baecker and Aaron Marcus,
 305 Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-10745-7
 306 @end display
 307
 308 (I don't quite agree with a few of the details they propose.)
 309
 310 @item
 311 Speech-generation programs (there is a program from Brown U that you
 312 could improve).
 313
 314 @item
 315 Speech-recognition programs (single-speaker, disconnected speech is sufficient).
 316
 317 @item
 318 A program to play sound distributed in ``Real Audio'' format.
 319
 320 @item
 321 A program to generate ``Real Audio'' format from audio input.
 322
 323 @item
 324 More scientific mathematical subroutines.
 325 (A clone of SPSS is being written already.)
 326
 327 @item
 328 Statistical tools.
 329
 330 @item
 331 Software to replace card catalogues in libraries.
 332
 333 @item
 334 Grammar and style checking programs.
 335
 336 @item
 337 An implementation of the S language (an interpreted language used for
 338 statistics).
 339
 340 @item
 341 A translator from Scheme to C.
 342
 343 @item
 344 Optical character recognition programs; especially if suitable for
 345 scanning documents with multiple fonts and capturing font info as well
 346 as character codes.  Work is being done on this, but more help is needed.
 347
 348 @item
 349 A program to scan a line drawing and convert it to Postscript.
 350
 351 @item
 352 A program to recognize handwriting.
 353
 354 @item
 355 A pen based interface.
 356
 357 @item
 358 CAD software, such as a vague imitation of Autocad.
 359
 360 @item
 361 Software for comparing DNA sequences, and finding matches and
 362 alignments.
 363 @end itemize
 364
 365 @node Compilers
 366 @chapter Compilers for Other Batch Languages
 367
 368 Volunteers are needed to write parsers/front ends for languages such as
 369 Algol 60, Algol 68, PL/I, Cobol, Fortran 90, or whatever, to be used
 370 with the code generation phases of the GNU C compiler.  (C, C++, and
 371 Objective-C are done; Fortran 77 is mostly done; Ada, Pascal, and Java
 372 are being worked on.)
 373
 374 @c Fortran status is here so gnu@prep and the volunteer coordinators
 375 @c don't have to answer the question -len
 376 You can get the status of the Fortran front end with this command:
 377
 378 @example
 379 finger -l fortran@@gnu.ai.mit.edu
 380 @end example
 381
 382 @node Games and Recreations
 383 @chapter Games and Recreations
 384
 385 Video-oriented games that work with the X window system.
 386
 387 @itemize @bullet
 388 @item
 389 A Doom-compatible display game engine, for running the many free
 390 levels people have written for Doom.
 391
 392 @item
 393 Empire (there is a free version but it needs upgrading)
 394
 395 @item
 396 An ``empire builder'' system that makes it easy to write various kinds of
 397 simulation games.
 398
 399 @item
 400 Improve GnuGo, which is not yet very sophisticated.
 401
 402 @item
 403 Imitations of popular video games:
 404
 405 @itemize -
 406 @item
 407 Space war, Asteroids, Pong, Columns.
 408 @item
 409 Defending cities from missiles.
 410 @item
 411 Plane shoots at lots of other planes, tanks, etc.
 412 @item
 413 Wizard fights fanciful monster.
 414 @item
 415 A golf game.
 416 @item
 417 Program a robot by sticking building blocks together,
 418 then watch it explore a world.
 419 @item
 420 Biomorph evolution (as in Scientific American).
 421 @item
 422 A program to display effects of moving at relativistic speeds.
 423 @end itemize
 424
 425 @item
 426 Intriguing screen-saver programs to make interesting pictures.
 427 Other such programs that are simply entertaining to watch.
 428 For example, an aquarium.
 429 @end itemize
 430
 431 We do not need @code{rogue}, as we have @code{hack}.
 432
 433 @contents
 434
 435 @bye