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author | Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> |
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date | Wed, 11 Jun 1997 19:02:06 +0000 |
parents | 7c8db921ea0f |
children | 707758087b7e |
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\input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*- @c %**start of header @setfilename tasks.info @settitle GNU Task List @c UPDATE THIS DATE WHENEVER YOU MAKE CHANGES! @set lastupdate 7 June 1997 @c %**end of header @setchapternewpage off @titlepage @title GNU Task List @author Free Software Foundation @author last updated @value{lastupdate} @end titlepage @ifinfo @node Top, Preface, (dir), (dir) @top GNU Task List This file is updated automatically from @file{tasks.texi}, which was last updated on @value{lastupdate}. @end ifinfo @menu * Intro:: * Highest Priority:: * Documentation:: * Unix-Related Projects:: * Kernel Projects:: * Extensions:: * X Windows Projects:: * Other Projects:: * Compilers:: * Games and Recreations:: @end menu @node Intro @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 list is available there in several different formats: @file{tasks.text}, @file{tasks.texi}, @file{tasks.info}, and @file{tasks.dvi}. The task list is also available on the GNU World Wide Web server: @url{http://www.gnu.ai.mit.edu/prep/tasks_toc.html}. If you start working steadily on a project, please let @code{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. Typically, a new program that does a completely new job advances the GNU project, and the free software community, more than an improvement to an existing program. Typically, new features or new programs advance the free software community more, in the long run, than porting existing programs. One reason is that portable new features and programs benefit people on many platforms, not just one. At the same time, there tend to be many volunteers for porting---so your help will be more valuable in other areas, where volunteers are more scarce. 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 @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 writing. It's better for you to work on any task that inspires you than not write free software at all. 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. @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. @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}. @item Help develop the GNU web browser, E-scape. @item Help develop Windows NT emulation for GNU systems---for example, WINE. @item Implement the Kermit data transfer protocol. (See below.) @item Develop a free compatible replacement for Qt, a graphics toolkit library. @item Develop a substitute, which runs on GNU systems, for some very popular or very important application that many non-programmers use on Windows, and which has no comparable free equivalent now. @end itemize @node Documentation @chapter Documentation We very urgently need documentation for some parts of the system that already exist or will exist very soon: @itemize @bullet @item A C reference manual. (RMS made a try at one, which you could start with). @item A manual for Ghostscript. @item A manual for TCSH. @item A manual for PIC (the graphics formatting language). @item A manual for Oleo. @item A book on how GCC works and why various machine descriptions are written as they are. @item A manual for programming X-window applications. @item Manuals for various X window managers. @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 @chapter Unix-Related Projects @itemize @bullet @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. @ignore @item 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 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. @end itemize @node Kernel Projects @chapter Kernel-Related Projects @itemize @bullet @item An over-the-ethernet debugger stub that will allow the kernel to be debugged from GDB running on another machine. This stub needs its own self-contained implementation of all protocols to be used, since the GNU system will use user processes to implement all but the lowest levels, and the stub won't be able to use those processes. If a simple self-contained implementation of IP and TCP is impractical, it might be necessary to design a new, simple protocol based directly on ethernet. It's not crucial to support high speed or communicating across gateways. It might be possible to use the Mach ethernet driver code, but it would need some changes. @item A shared memory X11 server to run under MACH is very desirable. The machine specific parts should be kept well separated. @item An implementation of CIFS, the ``Common Internet File System,'' for the HURD. This protocol is an offshoot of SMB. @end itemize @node Extensions @chapter Extensions to Existing GNU Software @itemize @bullet @item Enhance GCC. See files @file{PROJECTS} and @file{PROBLEMS} in the GCC distribution. @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. @item Rewrite GNU @code{sed} completely, to make it cleaner. @item Rewrite Automake and Deja-GNU in Scheme, so they can run in Guile. Right now they are written in Perl and TCL, respectively. There are also other programs, not terribly long, which we would also like to have rewritten in Scheme. @item Finish the partially-implemented C interpreter project. @item Help with the development of GNUStep, a GNU implementation of the OpenStep specification. @item Add features to GNU Make to record the precise rule with which each file was last recompiled; then recompile any file if its rule in the makefile has changed. @item Add a few features to GNU @code{diff}, such as handling large input files without reading entire files into core. @item An @code{nroff} macro package to simplify @code{texi2roff}. @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. 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.) @end itemize @node X Windows Projects @chapter X Windows Projects @itemize @bullet @item An emulator for Macintosh graphics calls on top of X Windows. @item A music playing and editing system. @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. @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. @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. @item A program for graphic morphing of scanned photographs. @end itemize @node Other Projects @chapter Other Projects If you think of others that should be added, please send them to @code{gnu@@prep.ai.mit.edu}. @itemize @bullet @item A free program for public-key encryption. This program 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. 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. @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. This program should follow the draft standard for ssh. As always, it cannot implement the RSA algorithm, but must instead support the alternatives that will be patent-free in late 1997. It cannot support IDEA, but can use triple-DES and some other alternatives. @item Free software for doing secure commercial transactions on the web. This too needs public key encryption. @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!) @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. @item A teleconferencing program which does the job of CU-SeeMe (which is, alas, not free software). @item A program to typeset C code for printing. For ideas on what to do, see the book, @display Human Factors and Typography for More Readable Programs, Ronald M. Baecker and Aaron Marcus, Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-10745-7 @end display (I don't quite agree with a few of the details they propose.) @item A program to convert Microsoft Word documents to TeX, LaTeX, Texinfo, text/enriched or some other format that free software can edit. @item A free replacement for the semi-free Qt library. @item Speech-generation programs (there is a program from Brown U that you could improve). @item Speech-recognition programs (single-speaker, disconnected speech is sufficient). @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 Software to replace card catalogues in libraries. @item Grammar and style checking programs. @item An implementation of the S language (an interpreted language used for statistics). @item A translator from Scheme to C. @item A fast emulator for the i386 which works by translating machine instructions into the machine language of the host machine. (Support for emulation of other machines would enhance the program but might make it much more difficult.) @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. @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 used with the code generation phases of the GNU C compiler. @c Fortran status is here so gnu@prep 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 @end example @node Games and Recreations @chapter 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) @item An ``empire builder'' system that makes it easy to write various kinds of simulation games. @item Improve GnuGo, which is not yet very sophisticated. @item Imitations of popular video games: @itemize - @item Space war, Asteroids, Pong, Columns. @item Defending cities from missiles. @item Plane shoots at lots of other planes, tanks, etc. @item Wizard fights fanciful monster. @item A golf game. @item Program a robot by sticking building blocks together, 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 @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