comparison etc/tasks.texi @ 32527:c2a966416be5

*** empty log message ***

32526:8e57189d61b4

\input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
@c %**start of header
@setfilename tasks.info
@settitle GNU Task List
@c This date is automagically updated when you save this file:
@set lastupdate November  1, 1999
@c %**end of header

@setchapternewpage off

@titlepage

Typically, it is more useful to extend a program in functionality than
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.

@node Highest Priority, Documentation, Intro, Top
@chapter Highest Priority

This task list mentions a large number of tasks that would be more or
less useful.  With luck, at least one of them will inspire you to start

But if you would like to work on what we need most, here is a list of
high priority projects.

@itemize @bullet
@item
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

@item
@uref{ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/tasks/tasks.hurd}, via anonymous FTP.

@item
@email{gnu@@gnu.org} via e-mail.

@end itemize

@item
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
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

@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/}.

@ignore  The Kermit developers say they will provide a free program
to do this.
@item
Implement the Kermit data transfer protocol.  (See below.)

@item
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.

@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.

@item
A manual for PIC (the graphics formatting language).

@item

@item
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.
@end itemize

@node Unix-Related Projects, Kernel Projects, Documentation, Top
@chapter Unix-Related Projects

@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 program.
@end itemize

@node Kernel Projects, Extensions, Unix-Related Projects, Top
@chapter Kernel-Related Projects

@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.

@item
Enhanced cross-reference browsing tools.  (We now have something at
about the level of @code{cxref}.)  We also could use something like
@code{ctrace}.  (Some people are now working on this project.)

@itemize @bullet
@item
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.

@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.

@item
A music playing and editing system.  This should work with LilyPond, a
GNU program for music typesetting.

@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

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

@item
Make sure the Vibrant toolkit works with LessTif instead of Motif.

@item

@item
A two-dimensional outliner program, which lets you draw
graph structures of textual items, and then display them
in various ways.

@item
A program for graphic morphing of scanned photographs.

@item
Software for designing and printing business cards.
@end itemize

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 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).

@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.

@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}.

@itemize @bullet
@ignore OpenBIOS is doing this
@item
A simple PC BIOS.  On most new PCs, the BIOS is stored in writable

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.
@end ignore

@ignore Frank Cruz promises a free version
@item
A free program that can transfer files on a serial line
using the same protocol that Kermit uses.
@end ignore

@item
An imitation of Page Maker or Ventura Publisher.

@item
An imitation of @code{dbase2} or @code{dbase3}.  (How dbased!)
@uref{http://www.startech.keller.tx.us/xbase/xbase.html} may contain
some useful stuff to start with.

@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.

@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.)
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.

@item
A program to play sound distributed in ``Real Audio'' format.

@item

@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).

@c Chris Hofstader is working on this.
@item
Speech-generation programs (there is a program from Brown U that you
could improve).

@c We have a project now.
@item
Speech-recognition programs (single-speaker, disconnected speech is sufficient).
@end ignore

@item
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
A program to calculate properties of molecules by solving
the Schroedinger equation.

@item
Software to replace card catalogues in libraries.

@item
A simulator for heating and air conditioning systems for buildings.

@item
A package for editing genealogical records conveniently.
This could perhaps be done as a Gnome program, or perhaps
as an Emacs extension.

@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.

@item
Grammar and style checking programs.

@item
A diagnostic program to test a hard disk.

@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.

@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.

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

@item
A program to recognize handwriting.

@item
A pen based interface.

@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 Languages, Games and Recreations, Other Projects, Top
@chapter Programming Languages

finger -l fortran@@gnu.org
@end example

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.

@node Games and Recreations,  , Languages, Top
@chapter Games and Recreations

Video-oriented games that work with the X window system.

@item
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
Space war, Asteroids, Pong, Columns.

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
@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)

32527:c2a966416be5

\input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
@c %**start of header
@setfilename tasks.info
@settitle GNU Task List
@c This date is automagically updated when you save this file:
@set lastupdate October 11, 2000
@c %**end of header

@setchapternewpage off

@titlepage

Typically, it is more useful to extend a program in functionality than
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

This task list mentions a large number of tasks that would be more or
less useful.  With luck, at least one of them will inspire you to start

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.

@item
If you are very good at C programming and interested in kernels, you can

@item
@uref{ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/tasks/tasks.hurd}, via anonymous FTP.

@item
@email{gvc@@gnu.org} via e-mail.

@end itemize

@item
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

@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.)

@item
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. <[e-mail]>
@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).

@item

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

@item
Many utilities still need documentation.
@end itemize

@node Unix-Related Projects, Kernel Projects, Documentation, Top
@chapter Unix-Related Projects

@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 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
@chapter Kernel-Related Projects

@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} and @email{woods@@weird.com} about this.

@item
Enhanced cross-reference browsing tools.  (We now have something at
about the level of @code{cxref}.)  We also could use something like
@code{ctrace}.  (Some people are now working on this project.)

@itemize @bullet
@item
An emulator for Macintosh graphics calls on top of X Windows.

@item

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

@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.  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.

@item

@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.
@end itemize

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 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 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

@node Other Projects, Languages, Encryption Projects, Top
@chapter Other Projects

If you think of others that should be added, please
send them to @email{tasks@@gnu.org}.

@itemize @bullet
@ignore OpenBIOS is doing this
@item
A simple PC BIOS.  On most new PCs, the BIOS is stored in writable

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.
@end ignore

@item
An imitation of Page Maker or Ventura Publisher.

@item
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.

@c This is being developed -- rms, 3 May 1998
@item
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 <[e-mail]>}.

@item
High-quality music compression software.
(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.

@item

@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).

@c Chris Hofstader is working on a non-Festival speech-generation program.
@c Mario Lang <[e-mail]> reports that Festival needs only
@c to be 2-5 times faster to work well with Emacspeak.
@item
Speech-generation programs that are faster than the Festival engine.
This might be done by optimizing Festival.

@c We have a project now.
@item
Speech-recognition programs (single-speaker, disconnected speech is sufficient).
@end ignore

@item
More scientific mathematical subroutines.
(A clone of SPSS is being written already.)

@item
A scientific data collection and processing tool,
perhaps something like Scientific Workbench and/or Khoros,

@item
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 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 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 <[e-mail]>, 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.

@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.

@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
@chapter Programming Languages

finger -l fortran@@gnu.org
@end example

We would like to have translators from various languages into Scheme.
These languages include TCL, Python, Perl, Java, Javascript, and Rexx.
Perhaps Clipper as well.

@node Games and Recreations,  , Languages, Top
@chapter Games and Recreations

Video-oriented games that work with the X window system.

@item
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:

@itemize -
@item
Space war, Asteroids, Pong, Columns.

then watch it explore a world.
@end ignore
@item
Biomorph evolution (as in Scientific American and @cite{The Blind
Watchmaker}).
@end itemize
@end itemize

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: ""
eval: (load "/gd/gnuorg/update-date.el")
eval: (add-hook 'write-file-hooks 'update-date)