# HG changeset patch # User Richard M. Stallman # Date 909942472 0 # Node ID 73c884a6f03c919bfe20dbc0ca388968e495a746 # Parent 133e5c5c2e64368dd2d621eb9b7868ff406781ea *** empty log message *** diff -r 133e5c5c2e64 -r 73c884a6f03c etc/tasks.texi --- a/etc/tasks.texi Sun Nov 01 17:08:22 1998 +0000 +++ b/etc/tasks.texi Sun Nov 01 17:47:52 1998 +0000 @@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ @setfilename tasks.info @settitle GNU Task List @c This date is automagically updated when you save this file: -@set lastupdate September 22, 1998 +@set lastupdate October 27, 1998 @c %**end of header @setchapternewpage off @@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ * X Windows Projects:: * Encryption Projects:: * Other Projects:: -* Compilers:: +* Languages:: * Games and Recreations:: @end menu @@ -115,11 +115,12 @@ and then contact the Guile developers at @email{guile@@gnu.org}. @item -Help develop XmHTML. +Help develop XmHTML. See @uref{http://www.xs4all.nl/~ripley/XmHTML/}. @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 Implement the Kermit data transfer protocol. (See below.) @@ -140,11 +141,6 @@ @end ignore @item -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 or very important application that many non-programmers use on Windows, and which has no comparable free equivalent now. @@ -157,17 +153,50 @@ 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. +proprietary manuals do not count, for the same reason proprietary +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 unified manual for La@TeX{}. (Existing documentation is non-free.) + +@item +A tutorial introduction to Midnight Commander. + +@item +A manual for GNU SQL. + +@item +A thorough manual for RCS. + +@item +A reference manual for Mach. + +@item +A reference manual for the GNU Hurd features in GNU libc. + +@item +A manual for writing Hurd servers. + +@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. +Reference manuals for C++, Objective C, Pascal, Fortran 77, and Java. + +@item +A tutorial manual for the C++ STL (standard template library). + +@item +GNU Objective-C Runtime Library Manual; this would be a reference manual +for the runtime library functions, structures, and classes. Some work +has been done on this job. + +@item +Manuals for GNUstep: developer tutorial, developer programming manual, +developer reference manual, and user manual. @item A manual for Ghostscript. @@ -195,7 +224,7 @@ are written as they are. @item -A manual for programming X-window applications. +A manual for programming applications for X11. @item Manuals for various X window managers. @@ -321,10 +350,23 @@ 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. + +@item An ephemeris program to replace xephem (which is, alas, too restricted to qualify as free software). @@ -340,6 +382,9 @@ @item A program for graphic morphing of scanned photographs. + +@item +Software for designing and printing business cards. @end itemize @node Encryption Projects @@ -358,17 +403,6 @@ 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 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 -alternatives that will be patent-free in late 1997. It cannot support -IDEA, but can use triple-DES and/or Blowfish or other non-patented -alternatives. - -@item Free software for doing secure commercial transactions on the web. This too needs public key encryption. @end itemize @@ -383,10 +417,6 @@ send them to @email{gnu@@gnu.org}. @itemize @bullet - -@item -A program to reformat HTML source to make it easier to read as HTML. - @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 @@ -421,6 +451,16 @@ @item A free replacement for Glimpse, which is not free software. +@item +Software for making "slide" presentations. It need not be compatible +with the popular proprietary software to do this job, but it should do +the same job. + +@item +Software for desktop publishing. We are extending Emacs into a WYSIWYG +word processor, to handle primarily linear text; what this item proposes +is software focused on page layout. + @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, @@ -433,6 +473,9 @@ But you don't have to do exactly what they propose. +@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 @@ -515,6 +558,13 @@ Grammar and style checking programs. @item +A program to calculate nutritional information from recipes. + +There is a free (unambiguously public domain) database of nutritional +information compiled by the USDA at +@url{http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp}. + +@item A translator from Scheme to C. @item @@ -548,8 +598,8 @@ reverse-engineering of communication protocols. @end itemize -@node Compilers -@chapter Compilers for Other Batch Languages +@node Languages +@chapter Programming Languages Volunteers are needed to write parsers/front ends for languages such as Algol 60, Algol 68, PL/I, Cobol, Fortran 90, or whatever, to be @@ -563,6 +613,12 @@ 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 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 @chapter Games and Recreations @@ -580,6 +636,10 @@ Improve GnuGo, which is not yet very sophisticated. @item +Network servers and clients for board and card games for which such +software does not yet exist. + +@item A Hierarchical Task Network package which can be used to program play the computer's side in various strategic games.