GNU Task list
*************

This file is updated automatically from tasks.texi, which was last updated on 16 July 1993.

Check with gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu, for a possibly more current copy. This task list is not exclusive; any other useful program might be a good project---but it might instead be something we already have, so check with gnu@prep before you start writing it.

If you start working steadily on a project, please let gnu@prep know. We might have information that could help you; we'd also like to send you the GNU coding standards.

Because of the natural tendency for most volunteers to write programming tools or programming languages, we have a comparative shortage of applications useful for non-programmer users.  Therefore, we ask you to consider writing such a program.

In general, a new program that does a completely new job advances the GNU project more than an improvement to an existing program.

Documentation
*************

We very urgently need documentation for some parts of the system that already exist or will exist very soon:

  * A C reference manual.  (RMS has written half of one which you could start with).

  * A manual for Ghostscript.

  * A manual for CSH.

  * A manual for PIC (the graphics formatting language).

  * A manual for Perl.  (The manual that exists is not free, and is thus not available to be part of the GNU system.)

  * A manual for Oleo.

  * A book on how GCC works and why various machine descriptions are written as they are.

  * A manual for programming X-window applications.

  * Manuals for various X window managers.

  * Reference cards for those manuals that don't have them: Gawk, C Compiler, Make, Texinfo, Termcap and maybe the C Library.

  * Many utilities need documentation, including grep, cpio, find, less, and the other small utilities.

Unix-Related projects
*********************

  * We could use an emulation of Unix spell, which would run by invoking ispell.

  * Less urgent: diction, explain, style.

  * An improved version of the POSIX utility pax.  There is one on the usenet, but it is said to be poorly written.  Talk with mib@gnu.ai.mit.edu about this project.

  * Modify the GNU dc program to use the math routines of GNU bc.

  * A grap preprocessor program for troff.

  * Various other libraries.

  * An emulation of SCCS that works using RCS.

Kernel-Related projects
***********************

  * An over-the-ethernet debugger that will allow the kernel to be debugged from GDB running on another machine.

  * A shared memory X11 server to run under MACH is very desirable.  The machine specific parts should be kept well separated.

Extensions to existing GNU software
***********************************

  * Enhance GCC.  See files PROJECTS and PROBLEMS in the GCC distribution.

  * GNU sed probably needs to be rewritten completely just to make it cleaner.

  * Add a few features to GNU diff, such as handling large input files without reading entire files into core.

  * Extend GDB with an X-based graphical interface better than xxgdb.

  * An nroff macro package to simplify texi2roff.

  * A queueing system for the mailer Smail that groups pending work by destination rather than by original message.  This makes it possible to schedule retries coherently for each destination.  Talk to tron@veritas.com about this.

  * Cross-referencing, flow graph, and execution trace programs for C and other languages, like cxref, cflow, and ctrace.

X windows projects
******************

  * An emulator for Macintosh graphics calls on top of X Windows.

  * An emulator for Microsoft windows calls on top of X Windows.  (A commercial program to do this took just three months to write.)

  * A music playing and editing system.

  * A program to edit dance notation (such as labanotation) and display dancers moving on the screen.

  * A library for displaying circle-shaped menus with X windows.

  * A program to display and edit Hypercard stacks.

  * An interface-builder program to make it easy to design graphical interfaces for applications.  This could work with the dynamic linker DLD and C++, loading in the same class definitions that will be used by the application program.

  * A desktop program with icons and such, for X-windows.

  * A paint program, supporting both bitmap-oriented operations and component-oriented operations.  xpaint exists, but isn't very usable.

Other Projects
**************

If you think of others that should be added, please send them to gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu.

  * [This seems to be being done:] A program to convert Postscript to plain ASCII text.  Ghostscript will soon have a mode to output all the text strings in a document, each with its coordinates.  You could write a program to start with this output and ``layout the page'' in ASCII.  The program will be both easier and more useful if you don't worry pedantically about how the output text should be formatted.  Instead, try to make it look reasonable as plain ASCII.

  * A program to convert compiled programs represented in OSF ANDF (``Architecture Neutral Distribution Format'') into ANSI C.

  * An imitation of Page Maker or Ventura Publisher.

  * An imitation of dbase2 or dbase3 (How dbased!)

  * A program to reformat Fortran programs in a way that is pretty.

  * A bulletin board system.  There are a few free ones, but they don't have all the features that people want in such systems.  It would make sense to start with an existing one and add the other features.

  * A general ledger program.

  * A single command language that could be suitable for use in a shell, in GDB for programming debugging commands, in a program like awk, in a calculator like bc, and so on.  The fact that all these programs are similar but different in peculiar details is a great source of confusion.  We are stuck with maintaining compatibility with Unix in our shell, awk, and bc, but nothing prevents us from having alternative programs using our new, uniform language.  This would make GNU far better for new users.

  * A program to typeset C code for printing. For ideas on what to do, see the forthcoming book,

          Human Factors and Typography for More Readable Programs,
          Ronald M. Baecker and Aaron Marcus,
          Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-10745-7

     (I don't quite agree with a few of the details they propose.)

  * Speech-generation programs (there is a program from Brown U that you could improve).

  * Speech-recognition programs (single-speaker, disconnected speech).

  * Scientific mathematical subroutines, including clones of SPSS.

  * Statistical tools.

  * Software to replace card catalogues in libraries.

  * Grammar and style checking programs.

  * An implementation of the S language.

  * A translator from Scheme to C.

  * Optical character recognition programs; especially if suitable for scanning documents with multiple fonts and capturing font info as well as character codes.  This may not be very difficult if you let it train on part of the individual document to be scanned, so as to learn what fonts are in use in that document.  We would particularly like to scan the Century Dictionary, an unabridged dictionary now in the public domain.

     You don't need scanning hardware to work on OCR.  We can send you bitmaps you can use as test data.

  * A program to scan a line drawing and convert it to Postscript.

  * A program to recognize handwriting.

  * A pen based interface.

  * Software suitable for creating virtual reality user interfaces.

  * CAD software, such as a vague imitation of Autocad.

  * Software for displaying molecules.

  * Software for comparing DNA sequences, and finding matches and alignments.

Compilers for Other Batch Languages
***********************************

Volunteers are needed to write parsers/front ends for languages such as Algol 60, Algol 68, PL/I, or whatever, to be used with the code generation phases of the GNU C compiler.  (C++ is done, and Ada, Fortran, Pascal and Modula are being worked on.)

Games and Recreations
*********************

  * Video-oriented games should work with the X window system.

  * Empire (there is a free version but it needs upgrading)

  * Imitations of popular video games:

       * Space war, Asteroids, Pong, Columns.

       * Defending cities from missiles.

       * Plane shoots at lots of other planes.

       * Wizard fights fanciful monster.

       * A golf game.

       * Program a robot by sticking building blocks together, then watch it explore a world.

       * Biomorph evolution (as in Scientific American).

       * A program to display effects of moving at relativistic speeds.

  * Intriguing screen-saver programs to make interesting pictures. Other such programs that are simply entertaining to watch. For example, an aquarium.

We do not need rogue, as we have hack.