X-Git-Url: https://code.delx.au/gnu-emacs/blobdiff_plain/118069b3b08d386e51edab6a1df1c0b0b1865a59..22933be894e62f74bc1f8702a986d29da6e6b0ef:/etc/tasks.texi diff --git a/etc/tasks.texi b/etc/tasks.texi index 1d8180e1de..fc68fbbfe0 100644 --- a/etc/tasks.texi +++ b/etc/tasks.texi @@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ @setfilename tasks.info @settitle GNU Task List @c This date is automagically updated when you save this file: -@set lastupdate February 13, 1999 +@set lastupdate October 11, 2000 @c %**end of header @setchapternewpage off @@ -19,7 +19,9 @@ @top GNU Task List This file is updated automatically from @file{tasks.texi}, which was -last updated on @value{lastupdate}. +last updated on @value{lastupdate}. See also +@uref{http://www.gnu.org/help/help.html#helpgnu} for other suggested +tasks. @end ifinfo @menu @@ -75,6 +77,11 @@ to improve performance. Users who use the new functionality will appreciate it very much, if they use it; but even when they benefit from a performance improvement, they may not consider it very important. +Finally, if you think of an important job that free software cannot +solve yet that is typically solved by proprietary software, please send +a short description of that job to @email{tasks@@gnu.org} so that we can +add it to this task list. + @node Highest Priority, Documentation, Intro, Top @chapter Highest Priority @@ -87,6 +94,11 @@ But if you would like to work on what we need most, here is a list of high priority projects. @itemize @bullet + +@item +A new maintainer is needed for Goose +@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/goose/goose.html}. + @item If you are good at writing documentation, please do that. @@ -106,7 +118,7 @@ Web. @uref{ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/tasks/tasks.hurd}, via anonymous FTP. @item -@email{gnu@@gnu.org} via e-mail. +@email{gvc@@gnu.org} via e-mail. @end itemize @@ -115,20 +127,34 @@ 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 +Improve the facilities for translating other languages into Scheme, +so that Guile can provide support for a variety of languages. + @item A package to convert programs written using MS Access into Scheme, making use of a free data base system and the GTK toolkit. +@ignore @item Help develop XmHTML. See @uref{http://www.xs4all.nl/~ripley/XmHTML/}. +@end ignore @item Help develop software to emulate Windows NT on top of GNU systems. For example, you could help work on Willows Twin. See @uref{http://www.willows.com/}. +@item +Add gettext support to GNU programs that don't have it already. (Please +contact the developers of the specific packages that you want to work +on.) + +@ignore The Kermit developers say they will provide a free program +to do this. @item Implement the Kermit data transfer protocol. (See below.) +@end ignore @ignore This is being done (Harmony) @item @@ -163,14 +189,17 @@ software does not count: we are not free to copy and modify them. We do not recommend any non-free materials as documentation. @itemize @bullet +@item +A manual for libstdc++. + @item A unified manual for La@TeX{}. (Existing documentation is non-free.) @item -A tutorial introduction to Midnight Commander. +A manual for Docbook SGML format. @item -A manual for GNU SQL. +A tutorial introduction to Midnight Commander. @item A thorough manual for RCS. @@ -184,12 +213,18 @@ A reference manual for the GNU Hurd features in GNU libc. @item A manual for writing Hurd servers. +@item +A manual for GNU sed. + @item Reference manuals for C++, Objective C, Pascal, Fortran 77, and Java. @item A tutorial manual for the C++ STL (standard template library). +@item +A tutorial manual for Gforth. + @item GNU Objective-C Runtime Library Manual; this would be a reference manual for the runtime library functions, structures, and classes. Some work @@ -210,10 +245,13 @@ A coherent free reference manual for Perl. Most of the Perl on-line reference documentation can be used as a starting point, but work is needed to weld them together into a coherent manual. +@ignore +@c Bradley Kuhn is working on this. @item 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. +@end ignore @item A manual for PIC (the graphics formatting language). @@ -233,7 +271,7 @@ Reference cards for those manuals that don't have them: C Compiler, Make, Texinfo, Termcap, and maybe the C Library. @item -Many utilities need documentation, including @code{grep} and others. +Many utilities still need documentation. @end itemize @node Unix-Related Projects, Kernel Projects, Documentation, Top @@ -246,13 +284,17 @@ Modify the GNU @code{dc} program to use the math routines of GNU @code{bc}. @end ignore -@item -A @code{grap} preprocessor program for @code{troff}. - @item 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. +with Unix is not especially important for this program. + +@item +Rewrite @code{indent} from scratch to make it cleaner. + +@item +Write a free software replacement for the @code{agrep} program. + @end itemize @node Kernel Projects, Extensions, Unix-Related Projects, Top @@ -328,16 +370,11 @@ files without reading entire files into core. @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 -@email{tron@@veritas.com} about this. - -Smail also needs a new chief maintainer. +@email{tron@@veritas.com} and @email{woods@@weird.com} about this. @item Enhanced cross-reference browsing tools. (We now have something at @@ -353,29 +390,41 @@ about the level of @code{cxref}.) We also could use something like An emulator for Macintosh graphics calls on top of X Windows. @item -A package that emulates the API of Visual C++, but operates on top of -X11. It need not match the screen appearance of Visual C++. Instead, -it would be best to use GTK, so as to give coherence with GNOME. +A package that emulates the API of Visual C++'s Foundation Classes +(MFC), but operates on top of X11. It need not match the screen +appearance provided by MFC. Instead, it would be best to use GTK, so as +to give coherence with GNOME. + +@ignore +@c GNOME Basic is doing this @item A compatible replacement for Visual Basic, running on top of X11. It need not match the screen appearance of Visual C++. Instead, it would be best to use GTK, so as to give coherence with GNOME. +@end ignore +@ignore +@c Denemo is doing this. @item A music playing and editing system. This should work with LilyPond, a GNU program for music typesetting. +@end ignore -@item -An ear-training program for students of music. - +@ignore @c GNUskies should do this @item An ephemeris program to replace xephem (which is, alas, too restricted to qualify as free software). +@end ignore + +@c Gepetto (@url{http://laurent.riesterer.free.fr/gepetto/intro-main.html}, +@c @email{laurent.riesterer@@free.fr}), according to @email{gnueval@@gnu.org}, +@c does the job of displaing dancers but does not allow editing notation. @item A program to edit dance notation (such as labanotation) and display -dancers moving on the screen. +dancers moving on the screen. Gepetto done some of this work. Contact +@email{gvc@@gnu.org} if you are interested in helping finish the job. @item Make sure the Vibrant toolkit works with LessTif instead of Motif. @@ -383,8 +432,15 @@ Make sure the Vibrant toolkit works with LessTif instead of Motif. @item A program to display and edit Hypercard stacks. +@item +A two-dimensional outliner program, which lets you draw +graph structures of textual items, and then display them +in various ways. + +@ignore @c done @item A program for graphic morphing of scanned photographs. +@end ignore @item Software for designing and printing business cards. @@ -394,25 +450,20 @@ Software for designing and printing business cards. @chapter Network Projects @itemize @bullet -@item -A web-based front end for the system and network monitoring program -@code{mon}, so that it can do the job of Big Brother (which is not free -software). Some other modifications to mon are probably necessary. -@code{mon} is considered to be at least as good as Big Brother except -for the lack of a good Web-based display to make it easy to scan the -status at a glance. - -It might be good to add a few other features to @code{mon}, including -``dialup'' hosts: systems that are monitored, but for which the lack of -any reply is not considered a failure. - +@ignore +@c www.openh323.org is doing this. Craig Southeren @item A teleconferencing program which does the job of CU-SeeMe (which is, alas, not free software). +@end ignore +@ignore +@c Bishop Bettini is working on this. @item A free ICQ-compatible server program. (The ICQ server itself is not free software.) +@end ignore + @end itemize @node Encryption Projects, Other Projects, Network Projects, Top @@ -423,32 +474,25 @@ US citizens, to avoid problems with US export control law. @itemize @bullet @item -A free library for public-key encryption. - -This library should use the Diffie-Helman algorithm for public key -encryption, not the RSA algorithm, because the Diffie-Helman patent in -the US expired in 1997. This library can probably be developed from -the code for the GNU Privacy Guard (now in development). - +A free library for public-key encryption. This library can probably be +developed from the code for the GNU Privacy Guard. + @item -An implementation of SSLv3 (more precisely, TLSv1) which is patent-free -(uses the non-RSA algorithms) and has distribution terms compatible with -the GNU GPL. We know of a GPL-covered implemention of a version of SSL -that you can use as a starting point. +An implementation of SSLv3 (more precisely, TLSv1) which has +distribution terms compatible with the GNU GPL. We know of a +GPL-covered implemention of a version of SSL that you can use as a +starting point. @item Free software for doing secure commercial transactions on the web. This too needs public key encryption. @end itemize -The projects to provide free replacements for PGP and SSH are no longer -listed here, because projects to do those jobs are well under way. - @node Other Projects, Languages, Encryption Projects, Top @chapter Other Projects If you think of others that should be added, please -send them to @email{gnu@@gnu.org}. +send them to @email{tasks@@gnu.org}. @itemize @bullet @ignore OpenBIOS is doing this @@ -466,19 +510,19 @@ 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. @end ignore -@item -A free program that can transfer files on a serial line -using the same protocol that Kermit uses. - @item An imitation of Page Maker or Ventura Publisher. @item -An imitation of @code{dbase2} or @code{dbase3} (How dbased!) +An imitation of @code{dbase2} or @code{dbase3}. (How dbased!) +Harbour, a free replacement for Clipper, would provide a useful start. +@uref{http://www.harbour-project.org/}. +@ignore @c being done by Jonas etc. @item A general ledger program, including support for accounts payable, account receivables, payroll, inventory control, order processing, etc. +@end ignore @item A free replacement for Glimpse, which is not free software. @@ -502,9 +546,6 @@ Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-10745-7 But you don't have to do exactly what they propose. @end ignore -@item -A program to reformat HTML source to make it easier to read as HTML. - @ignore @c This is now being worked on -- rms, 22 June 1998 @item @@ -530,12 +571,16 @@ about siff (which is, unfortunately, not free software) at A free replacement for the semi-free Qt library. @end ignore +@ignore +@c Ogg Vorbis is doing this, see @url{http://www.xiph.org/ogg/vorbis/index.html} or contact @email{Monty }. + @item High-quality music compression software. -(Talk with @email{phr@@netcom.com} for relevant suggestions.) +(Talk with @email{mt@@sulaco.org} for relevant suggestions.) Unfortunately we cannot implement the popular MP3 format due to patents, so this job includes working out some other non-patented format and compression method. +@end ignore @item A program to play sound distributed in ``Real Audio'' format. @@ -551,10 +596,12 @@ Programs to handle audio in RTSP format. An MPEG III audio encoder/decoder (but it is necessary to check, first, whether patents make this impossible). -@c Chris Hofstader is working on this. +@c Chris Hofstader is working on a non-Festival speech-generation program. +@c Mario Lang reports that Festival needs only +@c to be 2-5 times faster to work well with Emacspeak. @item -Speech-generation programs (there is a program from Brown U that you -could improve). +Speech-generation programs that are faster than the Festival engine. +This might be done by optimizing Festival. @c We have a project now. @item @@ -580,48 +627,68 @@ learn more. More scientific mathematical subroutines. (A clone of SPSS is being written already.) -@item -Statistical tools. - @item A scientific data collection and processing tool, perhaps something like Scientific Workbench and/or Khoros, @item -Software to replace card catalogues in libraries. +A program to calculate properties of molecules by solving +the Schroedinger equation. + +@item +Software to replace card catalogs in libraries. + +@item +A simulator for heating and air conditioning systems for buildings. + +@ignore +@c Pat Deegan @email{pat@@psychogenic.com} is working on this. +@c no URL yet, the status is updated in @file{volunteers} + +@item +A program for voting and tabulating election results. + +@end ignore @item A package for editing genealogical records conveniently. This could perhaps be done as a Gnome program, or perhaps -as an Emacs extentsion. +as an Emacs extension. + +@ignore +@c ToutDoux aims to do this. @item 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. +@end ignore @item Grammar and style checking programs. @item -A fast emulator for the i386, which would make it possible -to emulate x86 code on other CPUs, and also to more easily -debug kernels such as Linux more conveniently. - -To make this faster, it could work by translating machine instructions -into the machine language of the host machine. +A diagnostic program to test a hard disk. @item Optical character recognition programs; especially if suitable for scanning documents with multiple fonts and capturing font info as well as character codes. Work is being done on this, but more help is needed. +@c Some of the OCR work being done: +@c Luis Cearra , http://lem.eui.upm.es/ocre.html +@c The status of these projects is updated in @file{/gd/gnuorg/volunteers} + @item A program to scan a line drawing and convert it to Postscript. @item A program to recognize handwriting. +@item +A program that can translate from one natural language, into another. +For example, a program to translate French into English. + @item A pen based interface. @@ -631,6 +698,16 @@ 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. + +@item +A database program designed to store and retrieve patent information. + +@item +A free software package to run on a Palm Pilot in place of its usual +software, doing more or less the usual jobs. (Linux, the kernel, has +apparently been ported, but according to what we hear this port is not +useful yet.) + @end itemize @node Languages, Games and Recreations, Other Projects, Top @@ -638,8 +715,8 @@ reverse-engineering of communication protocols. Volunteers are needed to write parsers/front ends for languages such as Algol 60, Algol 68, PL/I, Cobol, Fortran 90, Delphi, Modula 2, Modula 3, -and any other languages designed for compilation, to be used with the -code generation phases of the GNU C compiler. +RPG, and any other languages designed for compilation, to be used with +the code generation phases of the GNU C compiler. @c Fortran status is here so gnu@gnu.org and the volunteer coordinators @c don't have to answer the question -len @@ -651,9 +728,7 @@ finger -l fortran@@gnu.org We would like to have translators from various languages into Scheme. These languages include TCL, Python, Perl, Java, Javascript, and Rexx. - -We would like to have an implementation of Clipper, perhaps a GCC front -end, and perhaps a translator into Scheme. +Perhaps Clipper as well. @node Games and Recreations, , Languages, Top @chapter Games and Recreations @@ -679,6 +754,9 @@ software does not yet exist. A Hierarchical Task Network package which can be used to program play the computer's side in various strategic games. +@item +A game like Mill/Nine Men's Morris. + @item Write imitations of some popular video games: @@ -701,8 +779,6 @@ then watch it explore a world. @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 @end itemize @@ -711,6 +787,17 @@ We do not need @code{rogue}, as we have @code{hack}. @contents @bye +@c LocalWords: dir texi lastupdate uref http www org html helpgnu ifinfo ftp +@c LocalWords: dvi hurd toc gvc URL GTK XmHTML xs nl ripley NT com gettext Qt +@c LocalWords: GUI libstdc Docbook SGML libc sed STL Gforth GNUstep TCSH Perl +@c LocalWords: Ghostscript PIC GCC Texinfo grep dc bc ethernet GDB IP CIFS CU +@c LocalWords: SMB SVGA Khoros Automake OpenStep diff roff Smail tron veritas +@c LocalWords: cxref ctrace API LilyPond xephem labanotation LessTif outliner +@c LocalWords: Hypercard morphing SeeMe ICQ Diffie Helman RSA SSLv TLSv GPL +@c LocalWords: OpenBIOS BIOS LILO dbase dbased Harbour harbour WYSIWYG ISBN +@c LocalWords: TruePrint Baecker siff sif cs arizona edu TR ps mt sulaco MP +@c LocalWords: RTSP MPEG jasonw ariel ucs unimelb AU stutz dsl TCL Javascript +@c LocalWords: Rexx GnuGo jhall isd Biomorph regexp eval gd gnuorg Local variables: update-date-leading-regexp: "@c This date is automagically updated when you save this file:\n@set lastupdate " update-date-trailing-regexp: ""