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7711098a GS |
1 | =head1 NAME |
2 | ||
3 | perltodo - Perl TO-DO List | |
4 | ||
5 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
e50bb9a1 | 6 | |
722d2a37 | 7 | This is a list of wishes for Perl. Send updates to |
e50bb9a1 GS |
8 | I<perl5-porters@perl.org>. If you want to work on any of these |
9 | projects, be sure to check the perl5-porters archives for past ideas, | |
10 | flames, and propaganda. This will save you time and also prevent you | |
11 | from implementing something that Larry has already vetoed. One set | |
12 | of archives may be found at: | |
13 | ||
14 | http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/ | |
15 | ||
722d2a37 | 16 | =head1 To do during 5.6.x |
e50bb9a1 | 17 | |
722d2a37 | 18 | =head2 Support for I/O disciplines |
e50bb9a1 | 19 | |
722d2a37 SC |
20 | C<perlio> provides this, but the interface could be a lot more |
21 | straightforward. | |
e50bb9a1 | 22 | |
722d2a37 | 23 | =head2 Eliminate need for "use utf8"; |
e50bb9a1 | 24 | |
722d2a37 SC |
25 | While the C<utf8> pragma is autoloaded when necessary, it's still needed |
26 | for things like Unicode characters in a source file. The UTF8 hint can | |
27 | always be set to true, but it needs to be set to false when F<utf8.pm> | |
28 | is being compiled. (To stop Perl trying to autoload the C<utf8> | |
29 | pragma...) | |
e50bb9a1 | 30 | |
722d2a37 | 31 | =head2 Autoload byte.pm |
e50bb9a1 | 32 | |
722d2a37 SC |
33 | When the lexer sees, for instance, C<bytes::length>, it should |
34 | automatically load the C<bytes> pragma. | |
e50bb9a1 | 35 | |
722d2a37 | 36 | =head2 Make "\u{XXXX}" et al work |
e50bb9a1 | 37 | |
722d2a37 SC |
38 | Danger, Will Robinson! Discussing the semantics of C<"\x{F00}">, |
39 | C<"\xF00"> and C<"\U{F00}"> on P5P I<will> lead to a long and boring | |
40 | flamewar. | |
e50bb9a1 | 41 | |
722d2a37 | 42 | =head2 Overloadable regex assertions |
e50bb9a1 | 43 | |
722d2a37 SC |
44 | This may or may not be possible with the current regular expression |
45 | engine. The idea is that, for instance, C<\b> needs to be | |
46 | algorithmically computed if you're dealing with Thai text. Hence, the | |
47 | B<\b> assertion wants to be overloaded by a function. | |
e50bb9a1 | 48 | |
722d2a37 | 49 | =head2 Unicode collation and normalization |
e50bb9a1 | 50 | |
722d2a37 | 51 | Simon Cozens promises to work on this. |
e50bb9a1 | 52 | |
722d2a37 SC |
53 | Collation? http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr10/ |
54 | Normalization? http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr15/ | |
e50bb9a1 | 55 | |
722d2a37 | 56 | =head2 Unicode case mappings |
e50bb9a1 | 57 | |
722d2a37 | 58 | Case Mappings? http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr21/ |
e50bb9a1 | 59 | |
722d2a37 | 60 | =head2 Unicode regular expression character classes |
e50bb9a1 | 61 | |
722d2a37 | 62 | They have some tricks Perl doesn't yet implement. |
e50bb9a1 | 63 | |
722d2a37 | 64 | http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr18/ |
e50bb9a1 | 65 | |
722d2a37 | 66 | =head2 use Thread for iThreads |
e50bb9a1 | 67 | |
722d2a37 SC |
68 | Artur Bergman's C<iThreads> module is a start on this, but needs to |
69 | be more mature. | |
e50bb9a1 | 70 | |
722d2a37 | 71 | =head2 Work out exit/die semantics for threads |
e50bb9a1 | 72 | |
722d2a37 | 73 | =head2 Typed lexicals for compiler |
e50bb9a1 | 74 | |
722d2a37 | 75 | =head2 Compiler workarounds for Win32 |
e50bb9a1 | 76 | |
722d2a37 | 77 | =head2 AUTOLOADing in the compiler |
e50bb9a1 | 78 | |
722d2a37 | 79 | =head2 Fixing comppadlist when compiling |
e50bb9a1 | 80 | |
722d2a37 | 81 | =head2 Cleaning up exported namespace |
e50bb9a1 | 82 | |
722d2a37 | 83 | =head2 Complete signal handling |
e50bb9a1 | 84 | |
722d2a37 SC |
85 | Add C<PERL_ASYNC_CHECK> to opcodes which loop; replace C<sigsetjmp> with |
86 | C<sigjmp>; check C<wait> for signal safety. | |
e50bb9a1 | 87 | |
722d2a37 | 88 | =head2 Out-of-source builds |
e50bb9a1 | 89 | |
722d2a37 | 90 | This was done for 5.6.0, but needs reworking for 5.7.x |
e50bb9a1 | 91 | |
722d2a37 | 92 | =head2 POSIX realtime support |
e50bb9a1 | 93 | |
722d2a37 SC |
94 | POSIX 1003.1 1996 Edition support--realtime stuff: POSIX semaphores, |
95 | message queues, shared memory, realtime clocks, timers, signals (the | |
96 | metaconfig units mostly already exist for these) | |
e50bb9a1 | 97 | |
722d2a37 | 98 | =head2 UNIX98 support |
e50bb9a1 | 99 | |
722d2a37 | 100 | Reader-writer locks, realtime/asynchronous IO |
e50bb9a1 | 101 | |
722d2a37 | 102 | =head2 IPv6 Support |
e50bb9a1 | 103 | |
722d2a37 SC |
104 | There are non-core modules, such as C<Net::IPv6>, but these will need |
105 | integrating when IPv6 actually starts to really happen. See RFC 2292 | |
106 | and RFC 2553. | |
e50bb9a1 | 107 | |
722d2a37 | 108 | =head2 Long double conversion |
e50bb9a1 | 109 | |
722d2a37 | 110 | Floating point formatting is still causing some weird test failures. |
e50bb9a1 | 111 | |
722d2a37 | 112 | =head2 Locales |
e50bb9a1 | 113 | |
722d2a37 SC |
114 | Locales and Unicode interact with each other in unpleasant ways. |
115 | One possible solution would be to adopt/support ICU: | |
e50bb9a1 | 116 | |
722d2a37 | 117 | http://oss.software.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/icu/project/ |
e50bb9a1 | 118 | |
722d2a37 | 119 | =head2 Thread-safe regexes |
e50bb9a1 | 120 | |
722d2a37 | 121 | The regular expression engine is currently non-threadsafe. |
e50bb9a1 | 122 | |
722d2a37 | 123 | =head2 Arithmetic on non-Arabic numerals |
e50bb9a1 | 124 | |
722d2a37 | 125 | C<[1234567890]> aren't the only numerals any more. |
e50bb9a1 | 126 | |
722d2a37 | 127 | =head2 POSIX Unicode character classes |
e50bb9a1 | 128 | |
722d2a37 SC |
129 | ([=a=] for equivalance classes, [.ch.] for collation.) |
130 | These are dependent on Unicode normalization and collation. | |
e50bb9a1 | 131 | |
722d2a37 | 132 | =head2 Factoring out common suffices/prefices in regexps (trie optimization) |
c47ff5f1 | 133 | |
722d2a37 SC |
134 | Currently, the user has to optimize C<foo|far> and C<foo|goo> into |
135 | C<f(?:oo|ar)> and C<[fg]oo> by hand; this could be done automatically. | |
e50bb9a1 | 136 | |
722d2a37 | 137 | =head2 Security audit shipped utilities |
e50bb9a1 | 138 | |
722d2a37 SC |
139 | All the code we ship with Perl needs to be sensible about temporary file |
140 | handling, locking, input validation, and so on. | |
e50bb9a1 | 141 | |
722d2a37 | 142 | =head2 Custom opcodes |
e50bb9a1 | 143 | |
722d2a37 SC |
144 | Have a way to introduce user-defined opcodes without the subroutine call |
145 | overhead of an XSUB; the user should be able to create PP code. Simon | |
146 | Cozens has some ideas on this. | |
e50bb9a1 | 147 | |
722d2a37 | 148 | =head2 spawnvp() on Win32 |
e50bb9a1 | 149 | |
722d2a37 SC |
150 | Win32 has problems spawning processes, particularly when the arguments |
151 | to the child process contain spaces, quotes or tab characters. | |
e50bb9a1 | 152 | |
722d2a37 | 153 | =head2 DLL Versioning |
e50bb9a1 | 154 | |
722d2a37 SC |
155 | Windows needs a way to know what version of a XS or C<libperl> DLL it's |
156 | loading. | |
e50bb9a1 | 157 | |
722d2a37 | 158 | =head2 Introduce @( and @) |
e50bb9a1 | 159 | |
722d2a37 SC |
160 | C<$(> may return "foo bar baz". Unfortunately, since groups can |
161 | theoretically have spaces in their names, this could be one, two or | |
162 | three groups. | |
e50bb9a1 | 163 | |
722d2a37 | 164 | =head2 Floating point handling |
e50bb9a1 | 165 | |
722d2a37 SC |
166 | C<NaN> and C<inf> support is particularly troublesome. |
167 | (fp_classify(), fp_class(), fp_class_d(), class(), isinf(), | |
168 | isfinite(), finite(), isnormal(), unordered(), <ieeefp.h>, | |
169 | <fp_class.h> (there are metaconfig units for all these) (I think), | |
170 | fp_setmask(), fp_getmask(), fp_setround(), fp_getround() | |
171 | (no metaconfig units yet for these). Don't forget finitel(), fp_classl(), | |
172 | fp_class_l(), (yes, both do, unfortunately, exist), and unorderedl().) | |
e50bb9a1 | 173 | |
722d2a37 | 174 | As of Perl 5.6.1 is a Perl macro, Perl_isnan(). |
e50bb9a1 | 175 | |
722d2a37 | 176 | =head2 IV/UV preservation |
e50bb9a1 | 177 | |
722d2a37 SC |
178 | Nicholas Clark has done a lot of work on this, but work is continuing. |
179 | C<+>, C<-> and C<*> work, but guards need to be in place for C<%>, C</>, | |
180 | C<&>, C<oct>, C<hex> and C<pack>. | |
e50bb9a1 | 181 | |
722d2a37 | 182 | =head2 Replace pod2html with something using Pod::Parser |
83df6a1d | 183 | |
722d2a37 SC |
184 | The CPAN module C<Malik::Pod::Html> may be a more suitable basis for a |
185 | C<pod2html> convertor; the current one duplicates the functionality | |
186 | abstracted in C<Pod::Parser>, which makes updating the POD language | |
187 | difficult. | |
e50bb9a1 | 188 | |
722d2a37 | 189 | =head2 Automate module testing on CPAN |
e50bb9a1 | 190 | |
722d2a37 SC |
191 | When a new Perl is being beta tested, porters have to manually grab |
192 | their favourite CPAN modules and test them - this should be done | |
193 | automatically. | |
e50bb9a1 | 194 | |
722d2a37 | 195 | =head2 sendmsg and recvmsg |
83df6a1d | 196 | |
722d2a37 SC |
197 | We have all the other BSD socket functions but these. There are |
198 | metaconfig units for these functions which can be added. To avoid these | |
199 | being new opcodes, a solution similar to the way C<sockatmark> was added | |
200 | would be preferable. (Autoload the C<IO::whatever> module.) | |
e50bb9a1 | 201 | |
722d2a37 | 202 | =head2 Rewrite perlre documentation |
e50bb9a1 | 203 | |
722d2a37 SC |
204 | The new-style patterns need full documentation, and the whole document |
205 | needs to be a lot clearer. | |
e50bb9a1 | 206 | |
722d2a37 | 207 | =head2 Convert example code to IO::Handle filehandles |
e50bb9a1 | 208 | |
722d2a37 | 209 | =head2 Document Win32 choices |
e50bb9a1 | 210 | |
722d2a37 | 211 | =head2 Check new modules |
e50bb9a1 | 212 | |
722d2a37 | 213 | =head2 Make roffitall find pods and libs itself |
e50bb9a1 | 214 | |
722d2a37 | 215 | Simon Cozens has done some work on this but it needs a rethink. |
e50bb9a1 | 216 | |
722d2a37 | 217 | =head1 To do at some point |
e50bb9a1 | 218 | |
722d2a37 SC |
219 | These are ideas that have been regularly tossed around, that most |
220 | people believe should be done maybe during 5.8.x | |
e50bb9a1 | 221 | |
722d2a37 | 222 | =head2 Remove regular expression recursion |
e50bb9a1 | 223 | |
722d2a37 SC |
224 | Because the regular expression engine is recursive, badly designed |
225 | expressions can lead to lots of recursion filling up the stack. Ilya | |
226 | claims that it is easy to convert the engine to being iterative, but | |
227 | this has still not yet been done. There may be a regular expression | |
228 | engine hit squad meeting at TPC5. | |
e50bb9a1 | 229 | |
722d2a37 | 230 | =head2 Memory leaks after failed eval |
e50bb9a1 | 231 | |
722d2a37 SC |
232 | Perl will leak memory if you C<eval "hlagh hlagh hlagh hlagh">. This is |
233 | partially because it attempts to build up an op tree for that code and | |
234 | doesn't properly free it. The same goes for non-syntactically-correct | |
235 | regular expressions. Hugo looked into this, but decided it needed a | |
236 | mark-and-sweep GC implementation. | |
e50bb9a1 | 237 | |
722d2a37 SC |
238 | Alan notes that: The basic idea was to extend the parser token stack |
239 | (C<YYSTYPE>) to include a type field so we knew what sort of thing each | |
240 | element of the stack was. The F<<perly.c> code would then have to be | |
241 | postprocessed to record the type of each entry on the stack as it was | |
242 | created, and the parser patched so that it could unroll the stack | |
243 | properly on error. | |
e50bb9a1 | 244 | |
722d2a37 SC |
245 | This is possible to do, but would be pretty messy to implement, as it |
246 | would rely on even more sed hackery in F<perly.fixer>. | |
e50bb9a1 | 247 | |
722d2a37 | 248 | =head2 pack "(stuff)*" |
e50bb9a1 | 249 | |
722d2a37 | 250 | That's to say, C<pack "(sI)40"> would be the same as C<pack "sI"x40> |
e50bb9a1 | 251 | |
722d2a37 | 252 | =head2 bitfields in pack |
e50bb9a1 | 253 | |
722d2a37 | 254 | =head2 Cross compilation |
e50bb9a1 | 255 | |
722d2a37 SC |
256 | Make Perl buildable with a cross-compiler. This will play havoc with |
257 | Configure, which needs to how how the target system will respond to | |
258 | its tests; maybe C<microperl> will be a good starting point here. | |
259 | (Indeed, Bart Schuller reports that he compiled up C<microperl> for | |
260 | the Agenda PDA and it works fine.) A really big spanner in the works | |
261 | is the bootstrapping build process of Perl: if the filesystem the | |
262 | target systems sees is not the same what the build host sees, various | |
263 | input, output, and (Perl) library files need to be copied back and forth. | |
e50bb9a1 | 264 | |
722d2a37 | 265 | =head2 Perl preprocessor / macros |
e50bb9a1 | 266 | |
722d2a37 SC |
267 | Source filters help with this, but do not get us all the way. For |
268 | instance, it should be possible to implement the C<??> operator somehow; | |
269 | source filters don't (quite) cut it. | |
e50bb9a1 | 270 | |
722d2a37 | 271 | =head2 Perl lexer in Perl |
a45bd81d | 272 | |
722d2a37 | 273 | Damian Conway is planning to work on this, but it hasn't happened yet. |
e50bb9a1 | 274 | |
722d2a37 | 275 | =head2 Using POSIX calls internally |
e50bb9a1 | 276 | |
722d2a37 SC |
277 | When faced with a BSD vs. SySV -style interface to some library or |
278 | system function, perl's roots show in that it typically prefers the BSD | |
279 | interface (but falls back to the SysV one). One example is getpgrp(). | |
280 | Other examples include C<memcpy> vs. C<bcopy>. There are others, mostly in | |
281 | F<<pp_sys.c>. | |
e50bb9a1 | 282 | |
722d2a37 SC |
283 | Mostly, this item is a suggestion for which way to start a journey into |
284 | an C<#ifdef> forest. It is not primarily a suggestion to eliminate any of | |
285 | the C<#ifdef> forests. | |
e50bb9a1 | 286 | |
722d2a37 SC |
287 | POSIX calls are perhaps more likely to be portable to unexpected |
288 | architectures. They are also perhaps more likely to be actively | |
289 | maintained by a current vendor. They are also perhaps more likely to be | |
290 | available in thread-safe versions, if appropriate. | |
e50bb9a1 | 291 | |
722d2a37 | 292 | =head2 -i rename file when changed |
e50bb9a1 | 293 | |
722d2a37 SC |
294 | It's only necessary to rename a file when inplace editing when the file |
295 | has changed. Detecting a change is perhaps the difficult bit. | |
e50bb9a1 | 296 | |
722d2a37 | 297 | =head2 All ARGV input should act like E<lt>E<gt> |
e50bb9a1 | 298 | |
722d2a37 | 299 | =head2 Support for rerunning debugger |
e50bb9a1 | 300 | |
722d2a37 | 301 | There should be a way of restarting the debugger on demand. |
e50bb9a1 | 302 | |
722d2a37 | 303 | =head2 my sub foo { } |
c47ff5f1 | 304 | |
722d2a37 SC |
305 | The basic principle is sound, but there are problems with the semantics |
306 | of self-referential and mutually referential lexical subs: how to | |
307 | declare the subs? | |
c47ff5f1 | 308 | |
722d2a37 | 309 | =head2 One-pass global destruction |
c47ff5f1 | 310 | |
722d2a37 SC |
311 | Sweeping away all the allocated memory in one go is a laudable goal, but |
312 | it's difficult and in most cases, it's easier to let the memory get | |
313 | freed by exiting. | |
e50bb9a1 | 314 | |
722d2a37 | 315 | =head2 Rewrite regexp parser |
e50bb9a1 | 316 | |
722d2a37 SC |
317 | There has been talk recently of rewriting the regular expression parser |
318 | to produce an optree instead of a chain of opcodes; it's unclear whether | |
319 | or not this would be a win. | |
e50bb9a1 | 320 | |
722d2a37 | 321 | =head2 Cache recently used regexps |
e50bb9a1 | 322 | |
722d2a37 | 323 | This is to speed up |
e50bb9a1 | 324 | |
722d2a37 SC |
325 | for my $re (@regexps) { |
326 | $matched++ if /$re/ | |
327 | } | |
e50bb9a1 | 328 | |
722d2a37 SC |
329 | C<qr//> already gives us a way of saving compiled regexps, but it should |
330 | be done automatically. | |
e50bb9a1 | 331 | |
722d2a37 | 332 | =head2 Re-entrant functions |
e50bb9a1 | 333 | |
722d2a37 SC |
334 | Add configure probes for C<_r> forms of system calls and fit them to the |
335 | core. Unfortunately, calling conventions for these functions and not | |
336 | standardised. | |
04c70446 | 337 | |
722d2a37 | 338 | =head2 Cross-compilation support |
04c70446 | 339 | |
722d2a37 SC |
340 | Bart Schuller reports that using C<microperl> and a cross-compiler, he |
341 | got Perl working on the Agenda PDA. However, one cannot build a full | |
342 | Perl because Configure needs to get the results for the target platform, | |
343 | for the host. | |
e50bb9a1 | 344 | |
722d2a37 | 345 | =head2 Bit-shifting bitvectors |
e50bb9a1 | 346 | |
722d2a37 | 347 | Given: |
e50bb9a1 | 348 | |
722d2a37 | 349 | vec($v, 1000, 1) = 1; |
e50bb9a1 | 350 | |
722d2a37 | 351 | One should be able to do |
e50bb9a1 | 352 | |
722d2a37 | 353 | $v <<= 1; |
e50bb9a1 | 354 | |
722d2a37 | 355 | and have the 999'th bit set. |
e50bb9a1 | 356 | |
722d2a37 SC |
357 | Currently if you try with shift bitvectors you shift the NV/UV, instead |
358 | of the bits in the PV. Not very logical. | |
e50bb9a1 | 359 | |
722d2a37 | 360 | =head2 debugger pragma |
e50bb9a1 | 361 | |
722d2a37 SC |
362 | The debugger is implemented in Perl in F<perl5db.pl>; turning it into a |
363 | pragma should be easy, but making it work lexically might be more | |
364 | difficult. Fiddling with C<$^P> would be necessary. | |
e50bb9a1 | 365 | |
722d2a37 | 366 | =head2 use less pragma |
e50bb9a1 | 367 | |
722d2a37 SC |
368 | Identify areas where speed/memory tradeoffs can be made and have a hint |
369 | to switch between them. | |
e50bb9a1 | 370 | |
722d2a37 | 371 | =head2 switch structures |
e50bb9a1 | 372 | |
722d2a37 SC |
373 | Although we have C<Switch.pm> in core, Larry points to the dormant |
374 | C<nswitch> and C<cswitch> ops in F<pp.c>; using these opcodes would be | |
375 | much faster. | |
e50bb9a1 | 376 | |
722d2a37 | 377 | =head2 Cache eval tree |
e50bb9a1 | 378 | |
722d2a37 | 379 | =head2 rcatmaybe |
e50bb9a1 | 380 | |
722d2a37 | 381 | =head2 Shrink opcode tables |
e50bb9a1 | 382 | |
722d2a37 | 383 | =head2 Optimize away @_ |
e50bb9a1 | 384 | |
722d2a37 | 385 | Look at the "reification" code in C<av.c> |
e50bb9a1 | 386 | |
722d2a37 | 387 | =head2 Prototypes versus indirect objects |
e50bb9a1 | 388 | |
722d2a37 | 389 | Currently, indirect object syntax bypasses prototype checks. |
e50bb9a1 | 390 | |
722d2a37 | 391 | =head2 Install HMTL |
e50bb9a1 | 392 | |
722d2a37 SC |
393 | HTML versions of the documentation need to be installed by default; a |
394 | call to C<installhtml> from C<installperl> may be all that's necessary. | |
e50bb9a1 | 395 | |
722d2a37 | 396 | =head2 Prototype method calls |
e50bb9a1 | 397 | |
722d2a37 | 398 | =head2 Return context prototype declarations |
e50bb9a1 | 399 | |
722d2a37 | 400 | =head2 magic_setisa |
e50bb9a1 | 401 | |
722d2a37 | 402 | =head2 Garbage collection |
e50bb9a1 | 403 | |
722d2a37 SC |
404 | There have been persistent mumblings about putting a mark-and-sweep |
405 | garbage detector into Perl; Alan Burlison has some ideas about this. | |
e50bb9a1 | 406 | |
722d2a37 | 407 | =head2 IO tutorial |
e50bb9a1 | 408 | |
722d2a37 | 409 | Mark-Jason Dominus has the beginnings of one of these. |
e50bb9a1 | 410 | |
722d2a37 | 411 | =head2 pack/unpack tutorial |
e50bb9a1 | 412 | |
722d2a37 | 413 | Simon Cozens has the beginnings of one of these. |
e50bb9a1 | 414 | |
722d2a37 | 415 | =head2 Rewrite perldoc |
e50bb9a1 | 416 | |
722d2a37 SC |
417 | There are a few suggestions for what to do with C<perldoc>: maybe a |
418 | full-text search, an index function, locating pages on a particular | |
419 | high-level subject, and so on. | |
e50bb9a1 | 420 | |
722d2a37 | 421 | =head2 Install .3p man pages |
e50bb9a1 | 422 | |
722d2a37 SC |
423 | This is a bone of contention; we can create C<.3p> man pages for each |
424 | built-in function, but should we install them by default? Tcl does this, | |
425 | and it clutters up C<apropos>. | |
e50bb9a1 | 426 | |
722d2a37 | 427 | =head2 Unicode tutorial |
e50bb9a1 | 428 | |
722d2a37 | 429 | Simon Cozens promises to do this before he gets old. |
e50bb9a1 | 430 | |
722d2a37 SC |
431 | =head2 Update POSIX.pm for 1003.1-2 |
432 | =head2 Retargetable installation | |
e50bb9a1 | 433 | |
722d2a37 | 434 | Allow C<@INC> to be changed after Perl is built. |
e50bb9a1 | 435 | |
722d2a37 | 436 | =head2 POSIX emulation on non-POSIX systems |
e50bb9a1 | 437 | |
722d2a37 SC |
438 | Make C<POSIX.pm> behave as POSIXly as possible everywhere, meaning we |
439 | have to implement POSIX equivalents for some functions if necessary. | |
e50bb9a1 | 440 | |
722d2a37 | 441 | =head2 Rename Win32 headers |
e50bb9a1 | 442 | |
722d2a37 SC |
443 | =head2 Finish off lvalue functions |
444 | ||
445 | They don't work in the debugger, and they don't work for list or hash | |
446 | slices. | |
e50bb9a1 | 447 | |
722d2a37 | 448 | =head2 Update sprintf documentation |
e50bb9a1 | 449 | |
722d2a37 | 450 | Hugo van der Sanden plans to look at this. |
e50bb9a1 | 451 | |
722d2a37 | 452 | =head2 Use fchown/fchmod internally |
e50bb9a1 | 453 | |
722d2a37 SC |
454 | This has been done in places, but needs a thorough code review. |
455 | Also fchdir is available in some platforms. | |
e50bb9a1 | 456 | |
722d2a37 | 457 | =head1 Vague ideas |
e50bb9a1 | 458 | |
722d2a37 | 459 | Ideas which have been discussed, and which may or may not happen. |
e50bb9a1 | 460 | |
722d2a37 | 461 | =head2 ref() in list context |
e50bb9a1 | 462 | |
722d2a37 SC |
463 | It's unclear what this should do or how to do it without breaking old |
464 | code. | |
e50bb9a1 | 465 | |
722d2a37 | 466 | =head2 Make tr/// return histogram |
e50bb9a1 | 467 | |
722d2a37 | 468 | There is a patch for this, but it may require Unicodification. |
e50bb9a1 | 469 | |
722d2a37 SC |
470 | =head2 Compile to real threaded code |
471 | =head2 Structured types | |
472 | =head2 Modifiable $1 et al. | |
e50bb9a1 | 473 | |
722d2a37 SC |
474 | ($x = "elephant") =~ /e(ph)/; |
475 | $1 = "g"; # $x = "elegant" | |
e50bb9a1 | 476 | |
722d2a37 SC |
477 | What happens if there are multiple (nested?) brackets? What if the |
478 | string changes between the match and the assignment? | |
e50bb9a1 | 479 | |
722d2a37 | 480 | =head2 Procedural interfaces for IO::*, etc. |
e50bb9a1 | 481 | |
722d2a37 SC |
482 | Some core modules have been accused of being overly-OO. Adding |
483 | procedural interfaces could demystify them. | |
e50bb9a1 | 484 | |
722d2a37 | 485 | =head2 RPC modules |
e50bb9a1 | 486 | |
722d2a37 | 487 | =head2 Attach/detach debugger from running program |
e50bb9a1 | 488 | |
722d2a37 SC |
489 | With C<gdb>, you can attach the debugger to a running program if you |
490 | pass the process ID. It would be good to do this with the Perl debugger | |
491 | on a running Perl program, although I'm not sure how it would be done. | |
e50bb9a1 | 492 | |
722d2a37 | 493 | =head2 Alternative RE syntax module |
e50bb9a1 | 494 | |
722d2a37 SC |
495 | use Regex::Newbie; |
496 | $re = Regex::Newbie->new | |
497 | ->start | |
498 | ->match("foo") | |
499 | ->repeat(Regex::Newbie->class("char"),3) | |
500 | ->end; | |
501 | /$re/; | |
e50bb9a1 | 502 | |
722d2a37 | 503 | =head2 GUI::Native |
e50bb9a1 | 504 | |
722d2a37 SC |
505 | A non-core module that would use "native" GUI to create graphical |
506 | applications. | |
e50bb9a1 | 507 | |
722d2a37 | 508 | =head2 foreach(reverse ...) |
e50bb9a1 | 509 | |
722d2a37 | 510 | Currently |
e50bb9a1 | 511 | |
722d2a37 | 512 | foreach (reverse @_) { ... } |
e50bb9a1 | 513 | |
722d2a37 SC |
514 | puts C<@_> on the stack, reverses it putting the reversed version on the |
515 | stack, then iterates forwards. Instead, it could be special-cased to put | |
516 | C<@_> on the stack then iterate backwards. | |
e50bb9a1 | 517 | |
722d2a37 | 518 | =head2 Constant function cache |
e50bb9a1 | 519 | |
722d2a37 | 520 | =head2 Approximate regular expression matching |
e50bb9a1 | 521 | |
722d2a37 | 522 | =head1 Ongoing |
e50bb9a1 | 523 | |
722d2a37 | 524 | These items B<always> need doing: |
e50bb9a1 | 525 | |
722d2a37 | 526 | =head2 Update guts documentation |
e50bb9a1 | 527 | |
722d2a37 SC |
528 | Simon Cozens tries to do this when possible, and contributions to the |
529 | C<perlapi> documentation is welcome. | |
e50bb9a1 | 530 | |
722d2a37 | 531 | =head2 Add more tests |
e50bb9a1 | 532 | |
722d2a37 SC |
533 | Michael Schwern will donate $500 to Yet Another Society when all core |
534 | modules have tests. | |
e50bb9a1 | 535 | |
722d2a37 | 536 | =head2 Update auxiliary tools |
e50bb9a1 | 537 | |
722d2a37 | 538 | The code we ship with Perl should look like good Perl 5. |
e50bb9a1 | 539 | |
722d2a37 | 540 | =head1 Recently done things |
e50bb9a1 | 541 | |
722d2a37 SC |
542 | These are things which have been on the todo lists in previous releases |
543 | but have recently been completed. | |
e50bb9a1 | 544 | |
722d2a37 | 545 | =head2 Safe signal handling |
e50bb9a1 | 546 | |
722d2a37 SC |
547 | A new signal model went into 5.7.1 without much fanfare. Operations and |
548 | C<malloc>s are no longer interrupted by signals, which are handled | |
549 | between opcodes. This means that C<PERL_ASYNC_CHECK> now actually does | |
550 | something. However, there are still a few things that need to be done. | |
e50bb9a1 | 551 | |
722d2a37 | 552 | =head2 Tie Modules |
e50bb9a1 | 553 | |
722d2a37 SC |
554 | Modules which implement arrays in terms of strings, substrings or files |
555 | can be found on the CPAN. | |
e50bb9a1 | 556 | |
722d2a37 | 557 | =head2 gettimeofday |
e50bb9a1 | 558 | |
722d2a37 | 559 | C<Time::Hires> has been integrated into the core. |
e50bb9a1 | 560 | |
722d2a37 | 561 | =head2 setitimer and getimiter |
e50bb9a1 | 562 | |
722d2a37 | 563 | Adding C<Time::Hires> got us this too. |
e50bb9a1 | 564 | |
722d2a37 SC |
565 | =head2 Testing __DIE__ hook |
566 | ||
567 | Tests have been added. | |
568 | ||
569 | =head2 CPP equivalent in Perl | |
e50bb9a1 | 570 | |
722d2a37 SC |
571 | A C Yardley will probably have done this by the time you can read this. |
572 | This allows for a generalization of the C constant detection used in | |
573 | building C<Errno.pm>. | |
e50bb9a1 | 574 | |
722d2a37 | 575 | =head2 Explicit switch statements |
e50bb9a1 | 576 | |
722d2a37 SC |
577 | C<Switch.pm> has been integrated into the core to give you all manner of |
578 | C<switch...case> semantics. | |
e50bb9a1 | 579 | |
722d2a37 | 580 | =head2 autocroak |
e50bb9a1 | 581 | |
722d2a37 | 582 | This is C<Fatal.pm>. |
e50bb9a1 | 583 | |
722d2a37 | 584 | =head2 UTF/EBCDIC |
e50bb9a1 | 585 | |
722d2a37 | 586 | Nick Ing-Simmons has made UTF-EBCDIC (UTR13) work with Perl. |
e50bb9a1 | 587 | |
722d2a37 | 588 | EBCDIC? http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr16/ |
e50bb9a1 | 589 | |
722d2a37 | 590 | =head2 UTF Regexes |
e50bb9a1 | 591 | |
722d2a37 SC |
592 | Although there are probably some small bugs to be rooted out, Jarkko |
593 | Hietaniemi has made regular expressions polymorphic between bytes and | |
594 | characters. | |
e50bb9a1 | 595 | |
722d2a37 | 596 | =head2 perlcc to produce executable |
e50bb9a1 | 597 | |
722d2a37 SC |
598 | C<perlcc> was recently rewritten, and can now produce standalone |
599 | executables. | |
e50bb9a1 | 600 | |
722d2a37 | 601 | =head2 END blocks saved in compiled output |
e50bb9a1 | 602 | |
722d2a37 | 603 | =head2 Secure temporary file module |
e50bb9a1 | 604 | |
722d2a37 | 605 | Tim Jenness' C<File::Temp> is now in core. |
e50bb9a1 | 606 | |
722d2a37 | 607 | =head2 Integrate Time::HiRes |
e50bb9a1 | 608 | |
722d2a37 | 609 | This module is now part of core. |
e50bb9a1 | 610 | |
722d2a37 | 611 | =head2 Turn Cwd into XS |
e50bb9a1 | 612 | |
722d2a37 | 613 | Benjamin Sugars has done this. |
e50bb9a1 | 614 | |
722d2a37 | 615 | =head2 Mmap for input |
e50bb9a1 | 616 | |
722d2a37 | 617 | Nick Ing-Simmons' C<perlio> supports an C<mmap> IO method. |
e50bb9a1 | 618 | |
722d2a37 | 619 | =head2 Byte to/from UTF8 and UTF8 to/from local conversion |
e50bb9a1 | 620 | |
722d2a37 | 621 | C<Encode> provides this. |
e50bb9a1 | 622 | |
722d2a37 | 623 | =head2 Add sockatmark support |
e50bb9a1 | 624 | |
722d2a37 | 625 | Added in 5.7.1 |
e50bb9a1 | 626 | |
722d2a37 SC |
627 | =head2 Mailing list archives |
628 | ||
629 | http://lists.perl.org/, http://archive.develooper.com/ | |
630 | ||
631 | =head2 Bug tracking | |
632 | ||
633 | Richard Foley has written the bug tracking system at http://bugs.perl.org/ | |
e50bb9a1 | 634 | |
722d2a37 | 635 | =head2 Integrate MacPerl |
e50bb9a1 | 636 | |
722d2a37 SC |
637 | Chris Nandor and Matthias Neeracher have integrated the MacPerl changes |
638 | into 5.6.0. | |
e50bb9a1 | 639 | |
722d2a37 | 640 | =head2 Web "nerve center" for Perl |
e50bb9a1 | 641 | |
722d2a37 | 642 | http://use.perl.org/ is what you're looking for. |
e50bb9a1 | 643 | |
722d2a37 | 644 | =head2 Regular expression tutorial |
e50bb9a1 | 645 | |
722d2a37 | 646 | C<perlretut>, provided by Mark Kvale. |
e50bb9a1 | 647 | |
722d2a37 | 648 | =head2 Debugging Tutorial |
e50bb9a1 | 649 | |
722d2a37 | 650 | C<perldebtut>, written by Richard Foley. |
e50bb9a1 | 651 | |
722d2a37 | 652 | =head2 Integrate new modules |
e50bb9a1 | 653 | |
722d2a37 | 654 | Jarkko has been integrating madly into 5.7.x |
e50bb9a1 | 655 | |
722d2a37 | 656 | =head2 Integrate profiler |
e50bb9a1 | 657 | |
722d2a37 | 658 | C<Devel::DProf> is now a core module. |
e50bb9a1 | 659 | |
722d2a37 | 660 | =head2 Y2K error detection |
e50bb9a1 | 661 | |
722d2a37 SC |
662 | There's a configure option to detect unsafe concatenation with "19", and |
663 | a CPAN module. (C<D'oh::Year>) | |
e50bb9a1 | 664 | |
722d2a37 | 665 | =head2 Regular expression debugger |
e50bb9a1 | 666 | |
722d2a37 SC |
667 | While not part of core, Mark-Jason Dominus has written C<Rx> and has |
668 | also come up with a generalised strategy for regular expression | |
669 | debugging. | |
e50bb9a1 | 670 | |
722d2a37 | 671 | =head2 POD checker |
e50bb9a1 | 672 | |
722d2a37 | 673 | That's, uh, F<podchecker> |
e50bb9a1 | 674 | |
722d2a37 | 675 | =head2 "Dynamic" lexicals |
e50bb9a1 | 676 | |
722d2a37 | 677 | =head2 Cache precompiled modules |
e50bb9a1 | 678 | |
722d2a37 | 679 | =head1 Deprecated Wishes |
e50bb9a1 | 680 | |
722d2a37 SC |
681 | These are items which used to be in the todo file, but have been |
682 | deprecated for some reason. | |
e50bb9a1 | 683 | |
722d2a37 | 684 | =head2 Loop control on do{} |
e50bb9a1 | 685 | |
722d2a37 | 686 | This would break old code; use C<do{{ }}> instead. |
e50bb9a1 | 687 | |
722d2a37 | 688 | =head2 Lexically scoped typeglobs |
e50bb9a1 | 689 | |
722d2a37 | 690 | Not needed now we have lexical IO handles. |
e50bb9a1 | 691 | |
722d2a37 SC |
692 | =head2 format BOTTOM |
693 | =head2 report HANDLE | |
e50bb9a1 | 694 | |
722d2a37 | 695 | Damian Conway's text formatting modules seem to be the Way To Go. |
e50bb9a1 | 696 | |
722d2a37 SC |
697 | =head2 Generalised want()/caller()) |
698 | =head2 Named prototypes | |
e50bb9a1 | 699 | |
722d2a37 | 700 | These both seem to be delayed until Perl 6. |
e50bb9a1 | 701 | |
722d2a37 | 702 | =head2 Built-in globbing |
e50bb9a1 | 703 | |
722d2a37 | 704 | The C<File::Glob> module has been used to replace the C<glob> function. |
e50bb9a1 | 705 | |
722d2a37 | 706 | =head2 Regression tests for suidperl |
e50bb9a1 | 707 | |
722d2a37 | 708 | C<suidperl> is deprecated in favour of common sense. |
e50bb9a1 | 709 | |
722d2a37 | 710 | =head2 Cached hash values |
e50bb9a1 | 711 | |
722d2a37 | 712 | We have shared hash keys, which perform the same job. |
e50bb9a1 | 713 | |
722d2a37 | 714 | =head2 Add compression modules |
e50bb9a1 | 715 | |
722d2a37 SC |
716 | The compression modules are a little heavy; meanwhile, Nick Clark is |
717 | working on experimental pragmata to do transparent decompression on | |
718 | input. | |
e50bb9a1 | 719 | |
722d2a37 | 720 | =head2 Reorganise documentation into tutorials/references |
e50bb9a1 | 721 | |
722d2a37 | 722 | Could not get consensus on P5P about this. |
e50bb9a1 | 723 | |
722d2a37 SC |
724 | =head2 Remove distinction between functions and operators |
725 | ||
726 | Caution: highly flammable. | |
727 | ||
728 | =head2 Make XS easier to use | |
e50bb9a1 | 729 | |
722d2a37 | 730 | Use C<Inline> instead, or SWIG. |
e50bb9a1 | 731 | |
722d2a37 | 732 | =head2 Make embedding easier to use |
e50bb9a1 | 733 | |
722d2a37 | 734 | Use C<Inline::CPR>. |
e50bb9a1 | 735 | |
722d2a37 | 736 | =head2 man for perl |
04c70446 | 737 | |
722d2a37 | 738 | See the Perl Power Tools. (http://language.perl.com/ppt/) |
04c70446 | 739 | |
722d2a37 | 740 | =head2 my $Package::variable |
04c70446 | 741 | |
722d2a37 | 742 | Use C<our> instead. |
04c70446 | 743 | |
722d2a37 | 744 | =head2 "or" tests defined, not truth |
04c70446 | 745 | |
722d2a37 | 746 | Suggesting this on P5P B<will> cause a boring and interminable flamewar. |
04c70446 | 747 | |
722d2a37 | 748 | =head2 "class"-based lexicals |
04c70446 | 749 | |
cbb3fa72 | 750 | Use flyweight objects, secure hashes or, dare I say it, pseudo-hashes instead. |
04c70446 | 751 | |
722d2a37 | 752 | =head2 byteperl |
04c70446 | 753 | |
722d2a37 | 754 | C<ByteLoader> covers this. |
04c70446 | 755 | |
722d2a37 | 756 | =head2 Lazy evaluation / tail recursion removal |
04c70446 | 757 | |
722d2a37 SC |
758 | C<List::Util> in core gives some of these; tail recursion removal is |
759 | done manually, with C<goto &whoami;>. (However, MJD has found that | |
760 | C<goto &whoami> introduces a performance penalty, so maybe there should | |
761 | be a way to do this after all: C<sub foo {START: ... goto START;> is | |
762 | better.) |