Mercurial > emacs

--- a/etc/tasks.texi	Wed Nov 27 20:47:18 2002 +0000
+++ b/etc/tasks.texi	Wed Nov 27 21:34:23 2002 +0000
@@ -3,41 +3,76 @@
 @setfilename tasks.info
 @settitle GNU Task List
 @c This date is automagically updated when you save this file:
-@set lastupdate January 15, 2001
+@set lastupdate October 24, 2002
 @c %**end of header

+@c On behalf of the Volunteer Coordinators, I humbly request that anyone
+@c who adds an entry to this file please add a pointer to some more info
+@c about that project.  People ask us (gvc@gnu.org) for more information
+@c about these projects and it's embarrassing to ask around and find out
+@c that nobody remembers what the project was supposed to be, or do.
+@c We don't need a huge elaborate ISO-9001 document, just a couple of
+@c paragraphs or a URL or something that explains what the e.g. ``stalker''
+@c project should do.  It will save us all time in the future.
+@c Thanks, toby@gnu.org
+@c April 27, 2002
+
+@dircategory GNU organization
+@direntry
+* Tasks: (tasks).               GNU task list.
+@end direntry
+
 @setchapternewpage off

+@copying
+The GNU task list, last updated @value{lastupdate}.
+
+Copyright (C) 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996,
+1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+
+@quotation
+Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
+are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
+notice and this notice are preserved.
+@end quotation
+@end copying
+
 @titlepage
 @title GNU Task List
 @author Free Software Foundation
 @author last updated @value{lastupdate}
+@page
+@vskip 0pt plus 1filll
+@insertcopying
 @end titlepage

-@ifinfo
+@contents
+
+@ifnottex
 @node Top, Intro, (dir), (dir)
 @top GNU Task List

-This file is updated automatically from @file{tasks.texi}, which was
-last updated on @value{lastupdate}.  See also
-@uref{http://www.gnu.org/help/help.html#helpgnu} for other suggested
-tasks.
-@end ifinfo
+@insertcopying
+
+See also
+@uref{http://www.gnu.org/help/help.html#helpgnu} for other suggested tasks.
+@end ifnottex

 @menu
-* Intro::
-* Highest Priority::
-* Documentation::
-* Unix-Related Projects::
-* Kernel Projects::
-* Extensions::
-* X Windows Projects::
-* Network Projects::
-* Encryption Projects::
-* Other Projects::
-* Languages::
-* Education::
-* Games and Recreations::
+* Intro::
+* Highest Priority::
+* Documentation::
+* Unix-Related Projects::
+* Kernel Projects::
+* Extensions::
+* Java Projects::
+* X Windows Projects::
+* Network Projects::
+* Encryption Projects::
+* Other Projects::
+* Languages::
+* Education::
+* Games and Recreations::
 @end menu

 @node Intro, Highest Priority, Top, Top
@@ -47,8 +82,7 @@
 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}.  The GNU
-HURD task list is also there in file @file{tasks.hurd}.
+@file{tasks.texi}, @file{tasks.info}, and @file{tasks.dvi}.
 @c to fix an overfill, join the paragraphs -len
 The task list is also available on the GNU World Wide Web server:
 @uref{http://www.gnu.org/prep/tasks_toc.html}.
@@ -96,37 +130,29 @@

 @itemize @bullet

-@item
-A new maintainer is needed for Goose
-@uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/goose/goose.html}.
+@item

-@item
-If you are good at writing documentation, please do that.
+If you are good at writing documentation, please do that.  Pick a system
+or program you like, and write a Free tutorial or manual for it.

 @item
-If you are very good at C programming and interested in kernels, you can
-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
+Help to finish the missing features of the @command{docbook2texi} so
+that as many Docbook tags as possible can be translated into reasonable
+Texinfo.  See @uref{http://docbook2x.sourceforge.net/todo.html} for a
+task list of what needs to be done.

 @item
-@uref{http://www.gnu.org/prep/tasks.hurd.html}, via the World Wide
-Web.
-
-@item
-@uref{ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/tasks/tasks.hurd}, via anonymous FTP.
-
-@item
-@email{gvc@@gnu.org} via e-mail.
-
-@end itemize
+If you are very good at C programming and interested in kernels, you
+can 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 join the HURD mailing lists at
+@uref{http://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-contact}.

 @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}.
+and then contact the Guile developers at @email{guile-devel@@gnu.org}.

 @item
 Improve the facilities for translating other languages into Scheme,
@@ -136,41 +162,26 @@
 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
+A general-purpose document viewing program that can handle PostScript,
+DVI, PDF, HTML, RTF, Word format and Word Perfect format.

 @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/}.
+For example, you could help work on Wine.
+See @uref{http://www.winehq.org/}.
+
+@ignore
+@c panda is a PDF generator library released under the GPL
+@c http://www.stillhq.com/cgi-bin/getpage?area=panda&page=index.htm
+@item
+A free replacement for pdflib. This is a library for generating PDF.
+@end ignore

 @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
-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
+on.)

 @item
 Develop a substitute, which runs on GNU systems, for some very popular
@@ -198,11 +209,18 @@
 @item
 A manual for libstdc++.

+
+@ignore
+@c the Indian TeX Users Group has completed a freely distributable version of a LaTex manual - http://www.tug.org.in/tutorials.html
 @item
 A unified manual for La@TeX{}.  (Existing documentation is non-free.)
+@end ignore

+@ignore
+@c docbook definitive guide http://www.docbook.org/tdg/en/html/ is now FDL
 @item
-A manual for Docbook SGML format.
+A manual for Docbook SGML format.
+@end ignore

 @item
 A tutorial introduction to Midnight Commander.
@@ -219,8 +237,11 @@
 @item
 A manual for writing Hurd servers.

+@ignore
+@c this is done.
 @item
 A manual for GNU sed.
+@end ignore

 @item
 Reference manuals for C++, Objective C, Pascal, Fortran 77, and Java.
@@ -251,13 +272,16 @@
 reference documentation can be used as a starting point, but work is
 needed to weld them together into a coherent manual.

-@ignore
-@c Bradley M. Kuhn is working on this. <bkuhn@ebb.org>
+@c Bradley M. Kuhn is working on this. <bkuhn@gnu.org>  Refer volunteers to
+@c  him.
+
 @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
+modification, so that they cannot be part of a GNU system.  bkuhn made a
+start at a free tutorial, but a lot of work is needed.
+

 @item
 A manual for PIC (the graphics formatting language).
@@ -274,7 +298,7 @@

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

 @item
 Many utilities still need documentation.
@@ -291,16 +315,16 @@
 @end ignore

 @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.

+@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
@@ -335,7 +359,7 @@
 console.
 @end itemize

-@node Extensions, X Windows Projects, Kernel Projects, Top
+@node Extensions, Java Projects, Kernel Projects, Top
 @chapter Extensions to Existing GNU Software

 @itemize @bullet
@@ -384,19 +408,39 @@

 @end itemize

-@node X Windows Projects, Network Projects, Extensions, Top
+@node  Java Projects, X Windows Projects, Extensions, Top
+@chapter Java Projects
+
+@itemize @bullet
+
+@item
+The GNU Classpath Extensions project is looking for help.  classpathx
+builds free versions of Sun's java extension libraries, the packages
+in the javax namespace.
+
+@item
+Write a replacement for the javadoc utility.  The Classpath
+(@uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/classpath}) team has already made a
+start to one.
+
+
+@end itemize
+
+@node X Windows Projects, Network Projects, Java Projects, Top
 @chapter X Windows Projects

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

+@ignore
+@c winelib does this http://www.winehq.org/
 @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.
+@end ignore

 @ignore
 @c GNOME Basic is doing this
@@ -440,8 +484,10 @@
 A program for graphic morphing of scanned photographs.
 @end ignore

+@ignore  @c Done by gLabels
 @item
 Software for designing and printing business cards.
+@end ignore
 @end itemize

 @node Network Projects, Encryption Projects, X Windows Projects, Top
@@ -449,7 +495,7 @@

 @itemize @bullet
 @ignore
-@c www.openh323.org is doing this. Craig Southeren <craigs@equival.com.au>
+@c Cornell has released a program for this.
 @item
 A teleconferencing program which does the job of CU-SeeMe (which is,
 alas, not free software).
@@ -462,6 +508,13 @@
 free software.)
 @end ignore

+@ignore
+@c if anyone knows what this means please send email to gvc@gnu.org
+@item
+Free software like Stalker for operating a web server for email
+services.
+@end ignore
+
 @end itemize

 @node Encryption Projects, Other Projects, Network Projects, Top
@@ -471,19 +524,30 @@
 US citizens, to avoid problems with US export control law.

 @itemize @bullet
+@ignore
+@c libcrypt is doing this.
 @item
 A free library for public-key encryption.  This library can probably be
 developed from the code for the GNU Privacy Guard.
-
+@end ignore
+
+@ignore
 @item
+@c GNUtls is doing this.
 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.
+@end ignore

+@ignore
+@c akopia interchange appears to do this.  if you'd like to re-open this
+@c item please let the GVC know what you want (in some detail)
 @item
 Free software for doing secure commercial transactions on the web.
-This too needs public key encryption.
+This should be based on libgcrypt and GNUtls.
+@end ignore
+
 @end itemize

 @node Other Projects, Languages, Encryption Projects, Top
@@ -493,7 +557,46 @@
 send them to @email{tasks@@gnu.org}.

 @itemize @bullet
-@ignore OpenBIOS is doing this
+
+@ignore
+@c vcg as of version 1.30 (current as of 2002-10-24) is GPL
+@c toby 2002-10-24
+@item
+A library for automatic graph layout.  VCG version 1.0, which was free
+software, might provide a base for this.
+@end ignore
+
+@item
+A data visualization program along the lines of xgobi or ggobi.
+
+@item
+A graph visualization program, which would use that library and
+provide a front end for manual and interactive intervention so as to
+provide a full substitute for equivalent proprietory software.  It
+would be good to support DOT format as input, and perhaps other
+formats.
+
+@c Such proprietary software is daVinci and graphviz, but are uncommon enough
+@c that we don't mention them here publicly.
+@c http://www.research.att.com/~erg/graphviz/info/lang.html
+@c Some useful information about graph drawing programs can be found here
+@c http://www.research.att.com/sw/tools/graphviz/gdlinks.html
+
+@c At the time of making this entry, VCG's website was
+@c    http://rw4.cs.uni-sb.de/users/sander/html/gsvcg1.html
+
+@item
+
+A ``one stop shopping system'' for advocates involved with social
+justice or other non-profit campaigns.  The idea would be to create an
+easy-to-use interface to software that would allow someone to register a
+domain for their organisation, build a website, and set up mailing
+lists.  The software would need options to easily do all this, and be
+made easy for non-hackers.  Mainly the work would involve bringing
+together a number of existing tools with an overriding configuration
+program.
+
+@ignore LinuxBIOS is doing this
 @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
@@ -518,7 +621,7 @@

 @ignore  @c being done by Jonas etc.
 @item
-A general ledger program, including support for accounts payable,
+A general ledger program, including support for accounts payable,
 account receivables, payroll, inventory control, order processing, etc.
 @end ignore

@@ -582,10 +685,17 @@
 @end ignore

 @item
-A program to play sound distributed in ``Real Audio'' format.
+A program to play sound distributed in ``Real Audio'' format, if only
+because there is a large corpus of data encoded in this format.  We
+ask that you encode audio data in Ogg/Vorbis format since it is
+publically documented and there are Free Software encoders and
+decoders available.

+@ignore
+@c we do NOT want to provide software to encode data into proprietary secret formats.  People should use ogg/vorbis or another well-documented format instead
 @item
 A program to generate ``Real Audio'' format from audio input.
+@end ignore

 @item
 Programs to handle audio in RTSP format.
@@ -631,11 +741,21 @@
 perhaps something like Scientific Workbench and/or Khoros,

 @item
+A free replacement for SciRun, which is not free software.
+
+@item
 A program to calculate properties of molecules by solving
 the Schroedinger equation.

+
+@ignore
+@c the Koha project appears to satisfy this need.  see www.koha.org
+@c toby 2002-06-21
+
 @item
 Software to replace card catalogs in libraries.
+@end ignore
+

 @item
 A simulator for heating and air conditioning systems for buildings.
@@ -649,13 +769,22 @@

 @end ignore

+@ignore
+@c at least 4 GPL program exist for this purpose (one of
+@c which, gramps, has a GNOME UI):
+@c http://www.gnu.org/search/fsd-search.py?q=geneology
+@c 2002-06-27 toby
+
 @item
 A package for editing genealogical records conveniently.
 This could perhaps be done as a Gnome program, or perhaps
 as an Emacs extension.

+@end ignore
+
 @ignore
 @c ToutDoux aims to do this.
+@c also Minkowsky (at least simple project management) - toby

 @item
 A project-scheduling package that accepts a list of project sub-tasks
@@ -683,7 +812,7 @@
 or some other editable format.

 @item
-A program to recognize handwriting (we don't believe PocketLinux's
+A program to recognize handwriting (we don't believe PocketLinux's
 handwriting capability is ready for non-PocketLinux environments, yet).


@@ -692,9 +821,6 @@
 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
@@ -720,13 +846,16 @@
 RPG, and any other languages designed for compilation, to be used with
 the code generation phases of the GNU C compiler.

+@ignore
 @c Fortran status is here so gnu@gnu.org and the volunteer coordinators
 @c don't have to answer the question -len
+@c as of 2002-09 this doesn't work anymore - toby
 You can get the status of the Fortran front end with this command:

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

 We would like to have translators from various languages into Scheme.
 These languages include TCL, Python, Perl, Java, Javascript, and Rexx.
@@ -740,7 +869,7 @@

 @itemize @bullet
 @item
-A programm to organize automatically the schedule of a school given
+A program to organize automatically the schedule of a school given
 constraints about teachers, rooms, times, and students.

 @item
@@ -764,7 +893,7 @@
 simulation games.

 @item
-Improve GnuGo @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/gnugo/gnugo.html}, which is not yet very sophisticated.
+Improve GnuGo @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/gnugo/gnugo.html}.

 @item
 Network servers and clients for board and card games for which such
@@ -778,6 +907,9 @@
 A game like Mill/Nine Men's Morris.

 @item
+A realistic train-driving simulator.
+
+@item
 Write imitations of some popular video games:

 @itemize -
@@ -789,6 +921,7 @@
 Plane shoots at lots of other planes, tanks, etc.
 @item
 Wizard fights fanciful monsters.
+@ignore Peter Sundling peter.sundling@telia.com expressed interest in this.
 @item
 A golf game.
 @ignore Being done by jhall1@isd.net
@@ -804,7 +937,6 @@

 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
@@ -818,10 +950,11 @@
 @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)
+eval: (add-hook 'write-file-hooks 'time-stamp)
+time-stamp-start: "@set lastupdate "
+time-stamp-end: "$"
+time-stamp-format: "%:b %:d, %:y"
 compile-command: "make just-tasks"
 End: