@c %**start of header
@setfilename tasks.info
@settitle GNU Task List
-@c UPDATE THIS DATE WHENEVER YOU MAKE CHANGES!
-@set lastupdate 23 June 1997
+@c This date is automagically updated when you save this file:
+@set lastupdate August 1, 1998
@c %**end of header
@setchapternewpage off
* Kernel Projects::
* Extensions::
* X Windows Projects::
+* Encryption Projects::
* Other Projects::
* Compilers::
* Games and Recreations::
@chapter About the GNU Task List
If you did not obtain this file directly from the GNU project and
-recently, please check for a newer version. You can ftp it the task
-list from any GNU FTP host in directory @file{/pub/gnu/tasks}. The task
+recently, please check for a newer version. You can ftp the task list
+from any GNU FTP host in directory @file{/pub/gnu/tasks/}. The task
list is available there in several different formats: @file{tasks.text},
-@file{tasks.texi}, @file{tasks.info}, and @file{tasks.dvi}.
-
+@file{tasks.texi}, @file{tasks.info}, and @file{tasks.dvi}. The GNU
+HURD task list is also there in file @file{tasks.hurd}.
+@c to fix an overfill, join the paragraphs -len
The task list is also available on the GNU World Wide Web server:
-@url{http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/prep/tasks_toc.html}.
+@uref{http://www.gnu.org/prep/tasks_toc.html}.
-If you start working steadily on a project, please let @code{gnu@@prep}
+If you start working steadily on a project, please let @email{gvc@@gnu.org}
know. We might have information that could help you; we'd also like to
send you the GNU coding standards.
@itemize @bullet
@item
-If you are good at writing documentation, please do.
+If you are good at writing documentation, please do that.
@item
If you are very good at C programming and interested in kernels, you can
-help develop the GNU HURD. Please look at
-@url{http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu:/software/hurd/hurd.html}. then contact
-@email{gnu@@prep.ai.mit.edu} and ask for the latest HURD task list.
+help develop the GNU HURD, the kernel for the GNU system. Please have a
+look at @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hurd.html}, and
+then get a copy of the latest HURD task list from:
+
+@itemize @bullet
@item
-If you are a Scheme fan, please help develop Guile. Please look
-at @url{http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu:/software/guile/guile.html} and then
-contact @email{guile@@gnu.ai.mit.edu}.
+@uref{http://www.gnu.org/prep/tasks.hurd.html}, via the World Wide
+Web.
@item
-Help develop the GNU web browser, E-scape.
+@uref{ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/tasks/tasks.hurd}, via anonymous FTP.
+
+@item
+@email{gnu@@gnu.org} via e-mail.
+
+@end itemize
@item
-Help develop Windows NT emulation for GNU systems---for example, WINE.
+If you are a Scheme fan, you can help develop Guile. Please have a look
+at the URL @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/guile/guile.html}
+and then contact the Guile developers at @email{guile@@gnu.org}.
+
+@item
+Help develop XmHTML.
+
+@item
+Help develop software to emulate Windows NT on top of GNU systems.
+For example, you could help work on Willows Twin.
@item
Implement the Kermit data transfer protocol. (See below.)
+@ignore This is being done (Harmony)
+@item
+Develop a free compatible replacement for Qt, a GUI toolkit library. Qt
+is not free software, because users are prohibited from distributing
+modified versions. Thus, Qt cannot be included in a free operating
+system (adding it would make the system as a whole non-free).
+
+But some developers are writing free applications that use Qt and cannot
+run without it. These programs, although free software, are useless for
+free operating systems because there is no way to make them run.
+
+This is leading to a serious problem, and a free replacement for Qt is
+the only solution. Hence the high degree of urgency of this project.
+@end ignore
+
@item
-Develop a free compatible replacement for Qt, a graphics toolkit
-library.
+Develop a free replacement for a semi-free program such as Xv or POV.
+These semi-free programs are less restricted than typical proprietary
+programs, but too restricted to be part of any free operating system.
@item
Develop a substitute, which runs on GNU systems, for some very popular
@node Documentation
@chapter Documentation
-We very urgently need documentation for some parts of the system
-that already exist or will exist very soon:
+We very urgently need documentation for many existing parts of the
+system.
+
+Note that there are proprietary manuals for many of these topics, but
+proprietary manuals do not count, because we are not free to copy and
+modify them along with the software they document. For this reason,
+we do not recommend any non-free manuals.
@itemize @bullet
@item
A C reference manual. (RMS made a try at one, which you could start
with).
+@item
+Reference manuals for C++, Pascal, Fortran 77, and Java.
+
@item
A manual for Ghostscript.
A manual for TCSH.
@item
-A manual for PIC (the graphics formatting language).
+A good free reference manual for Perl. The free Perl on-line reference
+documentation is good, for what it is--a list of functions and a
+description of each--but that is not the same as a reference manual.
+(Compare, for example, the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual with the
+collection of documentation strings of Emacs Lisp functions.)
@item
-A manual for Oleo.
+A good free Perl language tutorial introduction. The existing Perl
+introductions are published with restrictions on copying and
+modification, so that they cannot be part of a GNU system.
+
+@item
+A manual for PIC (the graphics formatting language).
@item
A book on how GCC works and why various machine descriptions
@item
An improved version of the POSIX utility @code{pax}. There is one on
Usenet, but it is said to be poorly written. Talk with
-@code{thomas@@gnu.ai.mit.edu} about this project.
+@email{thomas@@gnu.org}, @email{pinard@@iro.umontreal.ca} and
+@email{juo@@klinzhai.rutgers.edu} for advice about this project.
@ignore
@item
Various other libraries.
@item
-An emulation of SCCS that works using RCS.
-
-@item
-Less urgent: @code{diction}, @code{explain}, and @code{style}, or
-something to do the same kind of job. Compatibility with Unix is not
-especially important for these programs.
+Less urgent: make a replacement for the ``writer's workbench'' program
+@code{style}, or something to do the same kind of job. Compatibility
+with Unix is not especially important for this programs.
@end itemize
@node Kernel Projects
@item
Interface GDB to Guile, so that users can write debugging commands in
Scheme. This would also make it possible to write, in Scheme, a
-graphical interface that uses Tk and is tightly integrated into GDB.
+graphical interface that uses GTK and is tightly integrated into GDB.
+
+@item
+Extend Octave to support programs that were written
+to run on Khoros.
@item
Rewrite GNU @code{sed} completely, to make it cleaner.
also other programs, not terribly long, which we would also like
to have rewritten in Scheme.
+Deja-GNU uses TCL via Expect. It may be easy to adapt Expect
+to work with Scheme instead of TCL.
+
@item
Finish the partially-implemented C interpreter project.
@item
-Help with the development of GNUStep, a GNU implementation of the
+Help with the development of GNUstep, a GNU implementation of the
OpenStep specification.
@item
@item
An @code{nroff} macro package to simplify @code{texi2roff}.
+@item
+An implementation of XML (see @uref{http://www.w3.org/XML/}).
+
@item
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
-@code{tron@@veritas.com} about this.
+@email{tron@@veritas.com} about this.
Smail also needs a new chief maintainer.
An emulator for Macintosh graphics calls on top of X Windows.
@item
-A music playing and editing system.
+A music playing and editing system. This should work with LilyPond, a
+GNU program for music typesetting.
@item
-High-quality music compression software.
-(Talk with phr@@netcom.com for relevant suggestions.)
-
-@item
-A program to play sound distributed in ``Real Audio'' format.
-
-@item
-A program to generate ``Real Audio'' format from audio input.
+An ephemeris program to replace xephem (which is, alas, too restricted
+to qualify as free software).
@item
A program to edit dance notation (such as labanotation) and display
dancers moving on the screen.
@item
-Port the Vibrant toolkit to work on X without using Motif.
+Make sure the Vibrant toolkit works with LessTif instead of Motif.
@item
A program to display and edit Hypercard stacks.
-@item
-A paint program, supporting both bitmap-oriented operations and
-component-oriented operations. @code{xpaint} exists, but isn't very
-usable.
-
-@item
-A vector-based drawing program in the spirit of Adobe Illustrator
-and Corel Draw.
-
@item
An interactive 3D modeling utility with rendering/raytracing capabilities.
A program for graphic morphing of scanned photographs.
@end itemize
-@node Other Projects
-@chapter Other Projects
+@node Encryption Projects
+@chapter Encryption Projects
-If you think of others that should be added, please
-send them to @code{gnu@@prep.ai.mit.edu}.
+These projects need to be written outside the US by people who are not
+US citizens, to avoid problems with US export control law.
@itemize @bullet
@item
-A free program for public-key encryption.
+A free library for public-key encryption.
-This program should use the Diffie-Helman algorithm for public key
+This library should use the Diffie-Helman algorithm for public key
encryption, not the RSA algorithm, because the Diffie-Helman patent in
-the US will expire in 1997. It should use triple-DES, not IDEA, for
-block encryption, because IDEA is patented in many countries and the
-patents will not expire soon.
-
-In other respects, it should be like PGP. If the new version of PGP
-no longer uses RSA and IDEA, compatibility with it may be feasible.
-
-There is a suggestion that the Blowfish algorithm might be a good choice
-for the non-public-key block encryption. I'm not an encryption expert
-so I don't have an opinion about that.
-
-This program needs to be written by someone who is not a US citizen,
-outside the US, to avoid problems with US export control law.
-
-Many people believe that PGP is free software, but that is not actually
-true. The distribution terms do not allow everyone to use and
-redistribute it. We used to think that these restrictions had been
-imposed by the patent holders for the RSA and IDEA algorithms, and that
-PGP could be free software if these algorithms were replaced by
-alternatives. But we have since learned that the owners of PGP are
-themselves unwilling to make it free software. Writing a new program is
-the only way to get free software for this job.
+the US expired in 1997. This library can probably be developed from
+the code for the GNU Privacy Guard (now in development).
@item
A free secure telnet program more or less like ssh/sshd. Since this
-requires a public key encryption algorithm, it is closely related to the
-preceding item.
+requires a public key encryption algorithm, it should be based
+on the library above.
This program should follow the draft standard for ssh. As always, it
cannot implement the RSA algorithm, but must instead support the
@item
Free software for doing secure commercial transactions on the web.
This too needs public key encryption.
+@end itemize
+
+A free replacement for PGP is no longer listed here because the GNU
+Privacy Guard will do that job.
+
+@node Other Projects
+@chapter Other Projects
+
+If you think of others that should be added, please
+send them to @email{gnu@@gnu.org}.
+
+@itemize @bullet
+@item
+A simple PC BIOS. On most new PCs, the BIOS is stored in writable
+memory (misleadingly known as ``flash ROM''). In order to have a wholly
+free system on these PCs, we need a free BIOS.
+
+This task is made simpler by the fact that this BIOS need only support
+enough features to enable a boot-loader such as LILO or GRUB to finish
+loading the kernel. Neither Linux nor Mach actually uses the BIOS once
+it starts up. Also, it is not absolutely necessary to do all the many
+diagnostics that an ordinary BIOS does (though it would be useful to do
+some of them). However, there may be a need to configure certain data
+in the computer in a way that is specific to each model of computer.
@item
A free program that can transfer files on a serial line
@item
An imitation of @code{dbase2} or @code{dbase3} (How dbased!)
-@item
-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.
-
@item
A general ledger program, including support for accounts payable,
account receivables, payroll, inventory control, order processing, etc.
alas, not free software).
@item
-A program to typeset C code for printing.
-For ideas on what to do, see the book,
+A free replacement for Glimpse, which is not free software.
+
+@item
+A program to typeset C code for printing, to make it easier to read on
+paper. For ideas on what to do, see the book,
@display
Human Factors and Typography for More Readable Programs,
Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-10745-7
@end display
-(I don't quite agree with a few of the details they propose.)
+But you don't have to do exactly what they propose.
+
+@ignore
+@c This is now being worked on -- rms, 22 June 1998
+@item
+A program to convert Microsoft Word documents to text/enriched, TeX,
+LaTeX, Texinfo, or some other format that free software can edit.
+@end ignore
+
+@ignore
+@c People are helping the developer of siff release it as free software.
@item
-A program to convert Microsoft Word documents to TeX, LaTeX, Texinfo,
-text/enriched or some other format that free software can edit.
+A free replacement for siff (sometimes called sif). This would be a
+program to find similar files in a large file system, ``similar''
+meaning that the files contain a significant number of common substrings
+that are of a certain size or greater. You can find some information
+about siff (which is, unfortunately, not free software) at
+@uref{ftp://ftp.cs.arizona.edu/reports/1993/TR93-33.ps.Z}.
+@end ignore
+@ignore
+@c This is being developed -- rms, 3 May 1998
@item
A free replacement for the semi-free Qt library.
+@end ignore
+
+@item
+High-quality music compression software.
+(Talk with @email{phr@@netcom.com} for relevant suggestions.)
+
+@item
+A program to play sound distributed in ``Real Audio'' format.
+
+@item
+A program to generate ``Real Audio'' format from audio input.
+
+@item
+Programs to handle audio in RTSP format.
+
+@ignore @c Software patents have made this domain off limits to free software.
+@item
+An MPEG III audio encoder/decoder (but it is necessary to check, first,
+whether patents make this impossible).
+@end ignore
@item
Speech-generation programs (there is a program from Brown U that you
@item
Speech-recognition programs (single-speaker, disconnected speech is sufficient).
+@ignore Being done
+@item
+A program to display text word by word, always showing just one word at
+a time. This method permits much faster reading than ordinary text
+display. If you want to work on this, contact @email{stutz@@dsl.org} to
+learn more.
+@end ignore
+
@item
More scientific mathematical subroutines.
(A clone of SPSS is being written already.)
Software to replace card catalogues in libraries.
@item
-Grammar and style checking programs.
+A project-scheduling package that accepts a list of project sub-tasks
+with their interdependencies, and generates Gantt charts and Pert charts
+and all the other standard project progress reports.
@item
-An implementation of the S language (an interpreted language used for
-statistics).
+Grammar and style checking programs.
@item
A translator from Scheme to C.
(Support for emulation of other machines would enhance the program
but might make it much more difficult.)
+@item
+A map display or geographic information system.
+
@item
Optical character recognition programs; especially if suitable for
scanning documents with multiple fonts and capturing font info as well
@item
CAD software, such as a vague imitation of Autocad.
+
+@item
+A program to receive data from a serial-line tap to facilitate the
+reverse-engineering of communication protocols.
@end itemize
@node Compilers
@chapter Compilers for Other Batch Languages
Volunteers are needed to write parsers/front ends for languages such as
-Algol 60, Algol 68, PL/I, Cobol, Fortran 90, Eiffel, or whatever, to be
+Algol 60, Algol 68, PL/I, Cobol, Fortran 90, or whatever, to be
used with the code generation phases of the GNU C compiler.
-@c Fortran status is here so gnu@prep and the volunteer coordinators
+@c Fortran status is here so gnu@gnu.org and the volunteer coordinators
@c don't have to answer the question -len
You can get the status of the Fortran front end with this command:
@example
-finger -l fortran@@gnu.ai.mit.edu
+finger -l fortran@@gnu.org
@end example
@node Games and Recreations
Video-oriented games that work with the X window system.
@itemize @bullet
-@item
-A Doom-compatible display game engine, for running the many free
-levels people have written for Doom.
-
@item
Empire (there is a free version but it needs upgrading)
Improve GnuGo, which is not yet very sophisticated.
@item
-Imitations of popular video games:
+A Hierarchical Task Network package which can be used
+to program play the computer's side in various strategic games.
+
+@item
+Write imitations of some popular video games:
@itemize -
@item
@item
Plane shoots at lots of other planes, tanks, etc.
@item
-Wizard fights fanciful monster.
+Wizard fights fanciful monsters.
@item
A golf game.
+@ignore Being done by jhall1@isd.net
@item
Program a robot by sticking building blocks together,
then watch it explore a world.
+@end ignore
@item
Biomorph evolution (as in Scientific American and @cite{The Blind
Watchmaker}).
@item
A program to display effects of moving at relativistic speeds.
@end itemize
-
-@item
-Intriguing screen-saver programs to make interesting pictures.
-Other such programs that are simply entertaining to watch.
-For example, an aquarium.
@end itemize
We do not need @code{rogue}, as we have @code{hack}.
@contents
@bye
+Local variables:
+update-date-leading-regexp: "@c This date is automagically updated when you save this file:\n@set lastupdate "
+update-date-trailing-regexp: ""
+eval: (load "/gd/gnuorg/update-date.el")
+eval: (add-hook 'write-file-hooks 'update-date)
+End: