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1 | =head1 NAME |
2 | ||
3 | perltodo - Perl TO-DO List | |
4 | ||
5 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
e50bb9a1 GS |
6 | |
7 | This is a list of wishes for Perl. It is maintained by Nathan | |
8 | Torkington for the Perl porters. Send updates to | |
9 | I<perl5-porters@perl.org>. If you want to work on any of these | |
10 | projects, be sure to check the perl5-porters archives for past ideas, | |
11 | flames, and propaganda. This will save you time and also prevent you | |
12 | from implementing something that Larry has already vetoed. One set | |
13 | of archives may be found at: | |
14 | ||
15 | http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/ | |
16 | ||
17 | ||
18 | =head1 Infrastructure | |
19 | ||
20 | =head2 Mailing list archives | |
21 | ||
22 | Chaim suggests contacting egroup and asking them to archive the other | |
23 | perl.org mailing lists. Probably not advocacy, but definitely | |
24 | perl6-porters, etc. | |
25 | ||
26 | =head2 Bug tracking system | |
27 | ||
28 | Richard Foley I<richard@perl.org> is writing one. We looked at | |
29 | several, like gnats and the Debian system, but at the time we | |
30 | investigated them, none met our needs. Since then, Jitterbug has | |
31 | matured, and may be worth reinvestigation. | |
32 | ||
e28598cb GS |
33 | The system we've developed is the recipient of perlbug mail, and any |
34 | followups it generates from perl5-porters. New bugs are entered | |
35 | into a mysql database, and sent on to | |
e50bb9a1 GS |
36 | perl5-porters with the subject line rewritten to include a "ticket |
37 | number" (unique ID for the new bug). If the incoming message already | |
38 | had a ticket number in the subject line, then the message is logged | |
39 | against that bug. There is a separate email interface (not forwarding | |
40 | to p5p) that permits porters to claim, categorize, and close tickets. | |
41 | ||
e28598cb | 42 | There is also a web interface to the system at http://bugs.perl.org. |
e50bb9a1 GS |
43 | |
44 | The current delay in implementation is caused by perl.org lockups. | |
45 | One suspect is the mail handling system, possibly going into loops. | |
46 | ||
e28598cb | 47 | We still desperately need a bugmaster, someone who will look at |
e50bb9a1 GS |
48 | every new "bug" and kill those that we already know about, those |
49 | that are not bugs at all, etc. | |
50 | ||
51 | =head2 Regression Tests | |
52 | ||
53 | The test suite for Perl serves two needs: ensuring features work, and | |
54 | ensuring old bugs have not been reintroduced. Both need work. | |
55 | ||
56 | Brent LaVelle (lavelle@metronet.com) has stepped forward to work on | |
57 | performance tests and improving the size of the test suite. | |
58 | ||
59 | =over 4 | |
60 | ||
61 | =item Coverage | |
62 | ||
63 | Do the tests that come with Perl exercise every line (or every block, | |
64 | or ...) of the Perl interpreter, and if not then how can we make them | |
65 | do so? | |
66 | ||
67 | =item Regression | |
68 | ||
69 | No bug fixes should be made without a corresponding testsuite addition. | |
70 | This needs a dedicated enforcer, as the current pumpking is either too | |
71 | lazy or too stupid or both and lets enforcement wander all over the | |
72 | map. :-) | |
73 | ||
74 | =item __DIE__ | |
75 | ||
76 | Tests that fail need to be of a form that can be readily mailed | |
77 | to perlbug and diagnosed with minimal back-and-forth's to determine | |
78 | which test failed, due to what cause, etc. | |
79 | ||
80 | =item suidperl | |
81 | ||
82 | We need regression/sanity tests for suidperl | |
83 | ||
84 | =item The 25% slowdown from perl4 to perl5 | |
85 | ||
86 | This value may or may not be accurate, but it certainly is | |
87 | eye-catching. For some things perl5 is faster than perl4, but often | |
a2293a43 | 88 | the reliability and extensibility have come at a cost of speed. The |
e50bb9a1 GS |
89 | benchmark suite that Gisle released earlier has been hailed as both a |
90 | fantastic solution and as a source of entirely meaningless figures. | |
91 | Do we need to test "real applications"? Can you do so? Anyone have | |
92 | machines to dedicate to the task? Identify the things that have grown | |
93 | slower, and see if there's a way to make them faster. | |
94 | ||
95 | =back | |
96 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
97 | =head1 Configure |
98 | ||
99 | Andy Dougherty maintain(ed|s) a list of "todo" items for the configure | |
100 | that comes with Perl. See Porting/pumpkin.pod in the latest | |
101 | source release. | |
102 | ||
103 | =head2 Install HTML | |
104 | ||
105 | Have "make install" give you the option to install HTML as well. This | |
106 | would be part of Configure. Andy Wardley (certified Perl studmuffin) | |
107 | will look into the current problems of HTML installation--is | |
108 | 'installhtml' preventing this from happening cleanly, or is pod2html | |
109 | the problem? If the latter, Brad Appleton's pod work may fix the | |
110 | problem for free. | |
111 | ||
112 | =head1 Perl Language | |
113 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
114 | =head2 64-bit Perl |
115 | ||
116 | Verify complete 64 bit support so that the value of sysseek, or C<-s>, or | |
117 | stat(), or tell can fit into a perl number without losing precision. | |
118 | Work with the perl-64bit mailing list on perl.org. | |
119 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
120 | =head2 Prototypes |
121 | ||
122 | =over 4 | |
123 | ||
124 | =item Named prototypes | |
125 | ||
126 | Add proper named prototypes that actually work usefully. | |
127 | ||
128 | =item Indirect objects | |
129 | ||
130 | Fix prototype bug that forgets indirect objects. | |
131 | ||
132 | =item Method calls | |
133 | ||
134 | Prototypes for method calls. | |
135 | ||
136 | =item Context | |
137 | ||
138 | Return context prototype declarations. | |
139 | ||
140 | =item Scoped subs | |
141 | ||
142 | lexically-scoped subs, e.g. my sub | |
143 | ||
144 | =back | |
145 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
146 | =head1 Perl Internals |
147 | ||
148 | =head2 magic_setisa | |
149 | ||
150 | C<magic_setisa> should be made to update %FIELDS [???] | |
151 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
152 | =head2 Garbage Collection |
153 | ||
154 | There was talk of a mark-and-sweep garbage collector at TPC2, but the | |
155 | (to users) unpredictable nature of its behaviour put some off. | |
156 | Sarathy, I believe, did the work. Here's what he has to say: | |
157 | ||
158 | Yeah, I hope to implement it someday too. The points that were | |
159 | raised in TPC2 were all to do with calling DESTROY() methods, but | |
a2293a43 | 160 | I think we can accommodate that by extending bless() to stash |
e50bb9a1 GS |
161 | extra information for objects so we track their lifetime accurately |
162 | for those that want their DESTROY() to be predictable (this will be | |
163 | a speed hit, naturally, and will therefore be optional, naturally. :) | |
c47ff5f1 | 164 | |
e50bb9a1 GS |
165 | [N.B. Don't even ask me about this now! When I have the time to |
166 | write a cogent summary, I'll post it.] | |
167 | ||
168 | =head2 Reliable signals | |
169 | ||
170 | Sarathy and Dan Sugalski are working on this. Chip posted a patch | |
171 | earlier, but it was not accepted into 5.005. The issue is tricky, | |
172 | because it has the potential to greatly slow down the core. | |
173 | ||
174 | There are at least three things to consider: | |
175 | ||
176 | =over 4 | |
177 | ||
178 | =item Alternate runops() for signal despatch | |
179 | ||
180 | Sarathy and Dan are discussed this on perl5-porters. | |
181 | ||
182 | =item Figure out how to die() in delayed sighandler | |
183 | ||
184 | =item Add tests for Thread::Signal | |
185 | ||
186 | =item Automatic tests against CPAN | |
187 | ||
188 | Is there some way to automatically build all/most of CPAN with | |
189 | the new Perl and check that the modules there pass all the tests? | |
190 | ||
191 | =back | |
192 | ||
193 | =head2 Interpolated regex performance bugs | |
194 | ||
195 | while (<>) { | |
196 | $found = 0; | |
197 | foreach $pat (@patterns) { | |
198 | $found++ if /$pat/o; | |
199 | } | |
200 | print if $found; | |
201 | } | |
202 | ||
203 | The qr// syntax added in 5.005 has solved this problem, but | |
204 | it needs more thorough documentation. | |
205 | ||
206 | =head2 Memory leaks from failed eval/regcomp | |
207 | ||
208 | The only known memory leaks in Perl are in failed code or regexp | |
209 | compilation. Fix this. Hugo Van Der Sanden will attempt this but | |
210 | won't have tuits until January 1999. | |
211 | ||
212 | =head2 Make XS easier to use | |
213 | ||
214 | There was interest in SWIG from porters, but nothing has happened | |
215 | lately. | |
216 | ||
217 | =head2 Make embedded Perl easier to use | |
218 | ||
219 | This is probably difficult for the same reasons that "XS For Dummies" | |
220 | will be difficult. | |
221 | ||
222 | =head2 Namespace cleanup | |
223 | ||
04c70446 | 224 | CPP-space: restrict CPP symbols exported from headers |
e50bb9a1 GS |
225 | header-space: move into CORE/perl/ |
226 | API-space: begin list of things that constitute public api | |
766b5730 | 227 | env-space: Configure should use PERL_CONFIG instead of CONFIG etc. |
e50bb9a1 GS |
228 | |
229 | =head2 MULTIPLICITY | |
230 | ||
231 | Complete work on safe recursive interpreters C<Perl-E<gt>new()>. | |
232 | Sarathy says that a reference implementation exists. | |
233 | ||
234 | =head2 MacPerl | |
235 | ||
236 | Chris Nandor and Matthias Neeracher are working on better integrating | |
237 | MacPerl into the Perl distribution. | |
238 | ||
239 | =head1 Documentation | |
240 | ||
241 | There's a lot of documentation that comes with Perl. The quantity of | |
242 | documentation makes it difficult for users to know which section of | |
243 | which manpage to read in order to solve their problem. Tom | |
244 | Christiansen has done much of the documentation work in the past. | |
245 | ||
246 | =head2 A clear division into tutorial and reference | |
247 | ||
248 | Some manpages (e.g., perltoot and perlreftut) clearly set out to | |
249 | educate the reader about a subject. Other manpages (e.g., perlsub) | |
250 | are references for which there is no tutorial, or are references with | |
251 | a slight tutorial bent. If things are either tutorial or reference, | |
252 | then the reader knows which manpage to read to learn about a subject, | |
253 | and which manpage to read to learn all about an aspect of that | |
254 | subject. Part of the solution to this is: | |
255 | ||
256 | =head2 Remove the artificial distinction between operators and functions | |
257 | ||
258 | History shows us that users, and often porters, aren't clear on the | |
259 | operator-function distinction. The present split in reference | |
260 | material between perlfunc and perlop hinders user navigation. Given | |
261 | that perlfunc is by far the larger of the two, move operator reference | |
262 | into perlfunc. | |
263 | ||
264 | =head2 More tutorials | |
265 | ||
266 | More documents of a tutorial nature could help. Here are some | |
267 | candidates: | |
268 | ||
269 | =over 4 | |
270 | ||
271 | =item Regular expressions | |
272 | ||
273 | Robin Berjon (r.berjon@ltconsulting.net) has volunteered. | |
274 | ||
275 | =item I/O | |
276 | ||
277 | Mark-Jason Dominus (mjd@plover.com) has an outline for perliotut. | |
278 | ||
279 | =item pack/unpack | |
280 | ||
281 | This is badly needed. There has been some discussion on the | |
282 | subject on perl5-porters. | |
283 | ||
284 | =item Debugging | |
285 | ||
286 | Ronald Kimball (rjk@linguist.dartmouth.edu) has volunteered. | |
287 | ||
a45bd81d GS |
288 | =back |
289 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
290 | =head2 Include a search tool |
291 | ||
292 | perldoc should be able to 'grep' fulltext indices of installed POD | |
293 | files. This would let people say: | |
294 | ||
295 | perldoc -find printing numbers with commas | |
296 | ||
297 | and get back the perlfaq entry on 'commify'. | |
298 | ||
299 | This solution, however, requires documentation to contain the keywords | |
300 | the user is searching for. Even when the users know what they're | |
301 | looking for, often they can't spell it. | |
302 | ||
303 | =head2 Include a locate tool | |
304 | ||
305 | perldoc should be able to help people find the manpages on a | |
306 | particular high-level subject: | |
307 | ||
308 | perldoc -find web | |
309 | ||
310 | would tell them manpages, web pages, and books with material on web | |
311 | programming. Similarly C<perldoc -find databases>, C<perldoc -find | |
312 | references> and so on. | |
313 | ||
314 | We need something in the vicinity of: | |
315 | ||
316 | % perl -help random stuff | |
317 | No documentation for perl function `random stuff' found | |
318 | The following entry in perlfunc.pod matches /random/a: | |
319 | =item rand EXPR | |
c47ff5f1 | 320 | |
e50bb9a1 | 321 | =item rand |
c47ff5f1 | 322 | |
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323 | Returns a random fractional number greater than or equal to C<0> and less |
324 | than the value of EXPR. (EXPR should be positive.) If EXPR is | |
325 | omitted, the value C<1> is used. Automatically calls C<srand()> unless | |
326 | C<srand()> has already been called. See also C<srand()>. | |
c47ff5f1 | 327 | |
e50bb9a1 GS |
328 | (Note: If your rand function consistently returns numbers that are too |
329 | large or too small, then your version of Perl was probably compiled | |
330 | with the wrong number of RANDBITS.) | |
331 | The following pod pages seem to have /stuff/a: | |
332 | perlfunc.pod (7 hits) | |
333 | perlfaq7.pod (6 hits) | |
334 | perlmod.pod (4 hits) | |
335 | perlsyn.pod (3 hits) | |
336 | perlfaq8.pod (2 hits) | |
337 | perlipc.pod (2 hits) | |
338 | perl5004delta.pod (1 hit) | |
339 | perl5005delta.pod (1 hit) | |
340 | perlcall.pod (1 hit) | |
341 | perldelta.pod (1 hit) | |
342 | perlfaq3.pod (1 hit) | |
343 | perlfaq5.pod (1 hit) | |
344 | perlhist.pod (1 hit) | |
345 | perlref.pod (1 hit) | |
346 | perltoc.pod (1 hit) | |
347 | perltrap.pod (1 hit) | |
348 | Proceed to open perlfunc.pod? [y] n | |
349 | Do you want to speak perl interactively? [y] n | |
350 | Should I dial 911? [y] n | |
351 | Do you need psychiatric help? [y] y | |
352 | <PELIZA> Hi, what bothers you today? | |
353 | A Python programmer in the next cubby is driving me nuts! | |
354 | <PELIZA> Hmm, thats fixable. Just [rest censored] | |
355 | ||
356 | =head2 Separate function manpages by default | |
357 | ||
358 | Perl should install 'manpages' for every function/operator into the | |
359 | 3pl or 3p manual section. By default. The splitman program in the | |
360 | Perl source distribution does the work of turning big perlfunc into | |
361 | little 3p pages. | |
362 | ||
363 | =head2 Users can't find the manpages | |
364 | ||
365 | Make C<perldoc> tell users what they need to add to their .login or | |
366 | .cshrc to set their MANPATH correctly. | |
367 | ||
368 | =head2 Install ALL Documentation | |
369 | ||
370 | Make the standard documentation kit include the VMS, OS/2, Win32, | |
3724d6f4 JD |
371 | Threads, etc information. installperl and pod/Makefile should know |
372 | enough to copy README.foo to perlfoo.pod before building everything, | |
373 | when appropriate. | |
e50bb9a1 GS |
374 | |
375 | =head2 Outstanding issues to be documented | |
376 | ||
377 | Tom has a list of 5.005_5* features or changes that require | |
378 | documentation. | |
379 | ||
380 | Create one document that coherently explains the delta between the | |
381 | last camel release and the current release. perldelta was supposed | |
382 | to be that, but no longer. The things in perldelta never seemed to | |
383 | get placed in the right places in the real manpages, either. This | |
384 | needs work. | |
385 | ||
04c70446 GS |
386 | =head2 Adapt www.linuxhq.com for Perl |
387 | ||
388 | This should help glorify documentation and get more people involved in | |
389 | perl development. | |
390 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
391 | =head2 Replace man with a perl program |
392 | ||
393 | Can we reimplement man in Perl? Tom has a start. I believe some of | |
394 | the Linux systems distribute a manalike. Alternatively, build on | |
395 | perldoc to remove the unfeatures like "is slow" and "has no apropos". | |
396 | ||
397 | =head2 Unicode tutorial | |
398 | ||
399 | We could use more work on helping people understand Perl's new | |
400 | Unicode support that Larry has created. | |
401 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
402 | =head1 Modules |
403 | ||
404 | =head2 Update the POSIX extension to conform with the POSIX 1003.1 Edition 2 | |
405 | ||
406 | The current state of the POSIX extension is as of Edition 1, 1991, | |
407 | whereas the Edition 2 came out in 1996. ISO/IEC 9945:1-1996(E), | |
408 | ANSI/IEEE Std 1003.1, 1996 Edition. ISBN 1-55937-573-6. The updates | |
409 | were legion: threads, IPC, and real time extensions. | |
410 | ||
411 | =head2 Module versions | |
412 | ||
413 | Automate the checking of versions in the standard distribution so | |
414 | it's easy for a pumpking to check whether CPAN has a newer version | |
415 | that we should be including? | |
416 | ||
417 | =head2 New modules | |
418 | ||
419 | Which modules should be added to the standard distribution? This ties | |
420 | in with the SDK discussed on the perl-sdk list at perl.org. | |
421 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
422 | =head2 Profiler |
423 | ||
424 | Make the profiler (Devel::DProf) part of the standard release, and | |
425 | document it well. | |
426 | ||
427 | =head2 Tie Modules | |
428 | ||
429 | =over 4 | |
430 | ||
431 | =item VecArray | |
432 | ||
433 | Implement array using vec(). Nathan Torkington has working code to | |
434 | do this. | |
435 | ||
436 | =item SubstrArray | |
437 | ||
438 | Implement array using substr() | |
439 | ||
440 | =item VirtualArray | |
441 | ||
442 | Implement array using a file | |
443 | ||
444 | =item ShiftSplice | |
445 | ||
446 | Defines shift et al in terms of splice method | |
447 | ||
448 | =back | |
449 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
450 | =head2 Procedural options |
451 | ||
452 | Support procedural interfaces for the common cases of Perl's | |
453 | gratuitously OOO modules. Tom objects to "use IO::File" reading many | |
454 | thousands of lines of code. | |
455 | ||
456 | =head2 RPC | |
457 | ||
458 | Write a module for transparent, portable remote procedure calls. (Not | |
459 | core). This touches on the CORBA and ILU work. | |
460 | ||
461 | =head2 y2k localtime/gmtime | |
462 | ||
463 | Write a module, Y2k::Catch, which overloads localtime and gmtime's | |
464 | returned year value and catches "bad" attempts to use it. | |
465 | ||
466 | =head2 Export File::Find variables | |
467 | ||
468 | Make File::Find export C<$name> etc manually, at least if asked to. | |
469 | ||
470 | =head2 Ioctl | |
471 | ||
472 | Finish a proper Ioctl module. | |
473 | ||
474 | =head2 Debugger attach/detach | |
475 | ||
476 | Permit a user to debug an already-running program. | |
477 | ||
478 | =head2 Regular Expression debugger | |
479 | ||
480 | Create a visual profiler/debugger tool that stepped you through the | |
481 | execution of a regular expression point by point. Ilya has a module | |
482 | to color-code and display regular expression parses and executions. | |
483 | There's something at http://tkworld.org/ that might be a good start, | |
484 | it's a Tk/Tcl RE wizard, that builds regexen of many flavours. | |
485 | ||
486 | =head2 Alternative RE Syntax | |
487 | ||
488 | Make an alternative regular expression syntax that is accessed through | |
489 | a module. For instance, | |
490 | ||
491 | use RE; | |
492 | $re = start_of_line() | |
493 | ->literal("1998/10/08") | |
494 | ->optional( whitespace() ) | |
495 | ->literal("[") | |
496 | ->remember( many( or( "-", digit() ) ) ); | |
497 | ||
498 | if (/$re/) { | |
499 | print "time is $1\n"; | |
500 | } | |
501 | ||
502 | Newbies to regular expressions typically only use a subset of the full | |
503 | language. Perhaps you wouldn't have to implement the full feature set. | |
504 | ||
505 | =head2 Bundled modules | |
506 | ||
507 | Nicholas Clark (nick@flirble.org) had a patch for storing modules in | |
508 | zipped format. This needs exploring and concluding. | |
509 | ||
510 | =head2 Expect | |
511 | ||
512 | Adopt IO::Tty, make it as portable as Don Libes' "expect" (can we link | |
513 | against expect code?), and perfect a Perl version of expect. IO::Tty | |
514 | and expect could then be distributed as part of the core distribution, | |
515 | replacing Comm.pl and other hacks. | |
516 | ||
517 | =head2 GUI::Native | |
518 | ||
519 | A simple-to-use interface to native graphical abilities would | |
520 | be welcomed. Oh, Perl's access Tk is nice enough, and reasonably | |
521 | portable, but it's not particularly as fast as one would like. | |
522 | Simple access to the mouse's cut buffer or mouse-presses shouldn't | |
523 | required loading a few terabytes of Tk code. | |
524 | ||
525 | =head2 Update semibroken auxiliary tools; h2ph, a2p, etc. | |
526 | ||
527 | Kurt Starsinic is working on h2ph. mjd has fixed bugs in a2p in the | |
528 | past. a2p apparently doesn't work on nawk and gawk extensions. | |
529 | Graham Barr has an Include module that does h2ph work at runtime. | |
530 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
531 | =head2 pod2html |
532 | ||
533 | A short-term fix: pod2html generates absolute HTML links. Make it | |
534 | generate relative links. | |
535 | ||
536 | =head2 Podchecker | |
537 | ||
538 | Something like lint for Pod would be good. Something that catches | |
539 | common errors as well as gross ones. Brad Appleton is putting | |
540 | together something as part of his PodParser work. | |
541 | ||
542 | =head1 Tom's Wishes | |
543 | ||
544 | =head2 Webperl | |
545 | ||
546 | Design a webperl environment that's as tightly integrated and as | |
547 | easy-to-use as Perl's current command-line environment. | |
548 | ||
549 | =head2 Mobile agents | |
550 | ||
551 | More work on a safe and secure execution environment for mobile | |
552 | agents would be neat; the Safe.pm module is a start, but there's a | |
553 | still a lot to be done in that area. Adopt Penguin? | |
554 | ||
555 | =head2 POSIX on non-POSIX | |
556 | ||
557 | Standard programming constructs for non-POSIX systems would help a | |
558 | lot of programmers stuck on primitive, legacy systems. For example, | |
559 | Microsoft still hasn't made a usable POSIX interface on their clunky | |
560 | systems, which means that standard operations such as alarm() and | |
561 | fork(), both critical for sophisticated client-server programming, | |
562 | must both be kludged around. | |
563 | ||
564 | I'm unsure whether Tom means to emulate alarm( )and fork(), or merely | |
565 | to provide a document like perlport.pod to say which features are | |
566 | portable and which are not. | |
567 | ||
568 | =head2 Portable installations | |
569 | ||
570 | Figure out a portable semi-gelled installation, that is, one without | |
571 | full paths. Larry has said that he's thinking about this. Ilya | |
572 | pointed out that perllib_mangle() is good for this. | |
573 | ||
574 | =head1 Win32 Stuff | |
575 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
576 | =head2 Rename new headers to be consistent with the rest |
577 | ||
578 | =head2 Sort out the spawnvp() mess | |
579 | ||
580 | =head2 Work out DLL versioning | |
581 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
582 | =head2 Style-check |
583 | ||
584 | =head1 Would be nice to have | |
585 | ||
586 | =over 4 | |
587 | ||
588 | =item C<pack "(stuff)*"> | |
589 | ||
590 | =item Contiguous bitfields in pack/unpack | |
591 | ||
592 | =item lexperl | |
593 | ||
594 | =item Bundled perl preprocessor | |
595 | ||
596 | =item Use posix calls internally where possible | |
597 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
598 | =item format BOTTOM |
599 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
600 | =item -i rename file only when successfully changed |
601 | ||
602 | =item All ARGV input should act like <> | |
603 | ||
604 | =item report HANDLE [formats]. | |
605 | ||
606 | =item support in perlmain to rerun debugger | |
607 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
608 | =item lvalue functions |
609 | ||
610 | Tuomas Lukka, on behalf of the PDL project, greatly desires this and | |
611 | Ilya has a patch for it (probably against an older version of Perl). | |
612 | Tuomas points out that what PDL really wants is lvalue I<methods>, | |
613 | not just subs. | |
614 | ||
615 | =back | |
616 | ||
617 | =head1 Possible pragmas | |
618 | ||
619 | =head2 'less' | |
620 | ||
621 | (use less memory, CPU) | |
622 | ||
623 | =head1 Optimizations | |
624 | ||
625 | =head2 constant function cache | |
626 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
627 | =head2 foreach(reverse...) |
628 | ||
629 | =head2 Cache eval tree | |
630 | ||
631 | Unless lexical outer scope used (mark in &compiling?). | |
632 | ||
633 | =head2 rcatmaybe | |
634 | ||
635 | =head2 Shrink opcode tables | |
636 | ||
637 | Via multiple implementations selected in peep. | |
638 | ||
639 | =head2 Cache hash value | |
640 | ||
641 | Not a win, according to Guido. | |
642 | ||
643 | =head2 Optimize away @_ where possible | |
644 | ||
645 | =head2 Optimize sort by { $a <=> $b } | |
646 | ||
647 | Greg Bacon added several more sort optimizations. These have | |
648 | made it into 5.005_55, thanks to Hans Mulder. | |
649 | ||
650 | =head2 Rewrite regexp parser for better integrated optimization | |
651 | ||
652 | The regexp parser was rewritten for 5.005. Ilya's the regexp guru. | |
653 | ||
654 | =head1 Vague possibilities | |
655 | ||
656 | =over 4 | |
657 | ||
658 | =item ref function in list context | |
659 | ||
660 | This seems impossible to do without substantially breaking code. | |
661 | ||
662 | =item make tr/// return histogram in list context? | |
663 | ||
664 | =item Loop control on do{} et al | |
665 | ||
666 | =item Explicit switch statements | |
667 | ||
668 | Nobody has yet managed to come up with a switch syntax that would | |
669 | allow for mixed hash, constant, regexp checks. Submit implementation | |
670 | with syntax, please. | |
671 | ||
672 | =item compile to real threaded code | |
673 | ||
674 | =item structured types | |
675 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
676 | =item Modifiable $1 et al |
677 | ||
678 | The intent is for this to be a means of editing the matched portions of | |
679 | the target string. | |
680 | ||
681 | =back | |
682 | ||
683 | =head1 To Do Or Not To Do | |
684 | ||
685 | These are things that have been discussed in the past and roundly | |
686 | criticized for being of questionable value. | |
687 | ||
688 | =head2 Making my() work on "package" variables | |
689 | ||
690 | Being able to say my($Foo::Bar), something that sounds ludicrous and | |
87275199 | 691 | the 5.6 pumpking has mocked. |
e50bb9a1 GS |
692 | |
693 | =head2 "or" testing defined not truth | |
694 | ||
695 | We tell people that C<||> can be used to give a default value to a | |
696 | variable: | |
697 | ||
698 | $children = shift || 5; # default is 5 children | |
699 | ||
700 | which is almost (but not): | |
701 | ||
702 | $children = shift; | |
703 | $children = 5 unless $children; | |
704 | ||
705 | but if the first argument was given and is "0", then it will be | |
706 | considered false by C<||> and C<5> used instead. Really we want | |
04c70446 | 707 | an C<||>-like operator that behaves like: |
e50bb9a1 GS |
708 | |
709 | $children = shift; | |
710 | $children = 5 unless defined $children; | |
711 | ||
04c70446 GS |
712 | Namely, a C<||> that tests defined-ness rather than truth. One was |
713 | discussed, and a patch submitted, but the objections were many. While | |
714 | there were objections, many still feel the need. At least it was | |
715 | decided that C<??> is the best name for the operator. | |
e50bb9a1 GS |
716 | |
717 | =head2 "dynamic" lexicals | |
718 | ||
719 | my $x; | |
720 | sub foo { | |
721 | local $x; | |
722 | } | |
723 | ||
724 | Localizing, as Tim Bunce points out, is a separate concept from | |
725 | whether the variable is global or lexical. Chip Salzenberg had | |
726 | an implementation once, but Larry thought it had potential to | |
727 | confuse. | |
728 | ||
729 | =head2 "class"-based, rather than package-based "lexicals" | |
730 | ||
731 | This is like what the Alias module provides, but the variables would | |
732 | be lexicals reserved by perl at compile-time, which really are indices | |
733 | pointing into the pseudo-hash object visible inside every method so | |
734 | declared. | |
735 | ||
736 | =head1 Threading | |
737 | ||
738 | =head2 Modules | |
739 | ||
740 | Which of the standard modules are thread-safe? Which CPAN modules? | |
741 | How easy is it to fix those non-safe modules? | |
742 | ||
743 | =head2 Testing | |
744 | ||
745 | Threading is still experimental. Every reproducible bug identifies | |
746 | something else for us to fix. Find and submit more of these problems. | |
747 | ||
748 | =head2 $AUTOLOAD | |
749 | ||
750 | =head2 exit/die | |
751 | ||
752 | Consistent semantics for exit/die in threads. | |
753 | ||
754 | =head2 External threads | |
755 | ||
756 | Better support for externally created threads. | |
757 | ||
758 | =head2 Thread::Pool | |
759 | ||
760 | =head2 thread-safety | |
761 | ||
762 | Spot-check globals like statcache and global GVs for thread-safety. | |
763 | "B<Part done>", says Sarathy. | |
764 | ||
765 | =head2 Per-thread GVs | |
766 | ||
767 | According to Sarathy, this would make @_ be the same in threaded | |
768 | and non-threaded, as well as helping solve problems like filehandles | |
769 | (the same filehandle currently cannot be used in two threads). | |
770 | ||
771 | =head1 Compiler | |
772 | ||
773 | =head2 Optimization | |
774 | ||
775 | The compiler's back-end code-generators for creating bytecode or | |
776 | compilable C code could use optimization work. | |
777 | ||
778 | =head2 Byteperl | |
779 | ||
780 | Figure out how and where byteperl will be built for the various | |
781 | platforms. | |
782 | ||
783 | =head2 Precompiled modules | |
784 | ||
785 | Save byte-compiled modules on disk. | |
786 | ||
787 | =head2 Executables | |
788 | ||
789 | Auto-produce executable. | |
790 | ||
791 | =head2 Typed lexicals | |
792 | ||
793 | Typed lexicals should affect B::CC::load_pad. | |
794 | ||
795 | =head2 Win32 | |
796 | ||
797 | Workarounds to help Win32 dynamic loading. | |
798 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
799 | =head2 END blocks |
800 | ||
7d30b5c4 | 801 | END blocks need saving in compiled output, now that CHECK blocks |
4f25aa18 | 802 | are available. |
e50bb9a1 GS |
803 | |
804 | =head2 _AUTOLOAD | |
805 | ||
806 | _AUTOLOAD prodding. | |
807 | ||
808 | =head2 comppadlist | |
809 | ||
810 | Fix comppadlist (names in comppad_name can have fake SvCUR | |
811 | from where newASSIGNOP steals the field). | |
812 | ||
813 | =head2 Cached compilation | |
814 | ||
815 | Can we install modules as bytecode? | |
816 | ||
04c70446 GS |
817 | =head1 Recently Finished Tasks |
818 | ||
2b92dfce GS |
819 | =head2 Figure a way out of $^(capital letter) |
820 | ||
821 | Figure out a clean way to extend $^(capital letter) beyond | |
822 | the 26 alphabets. (${^WORD} maybe?) | |
823 | ||
824 | Mark-Jason Dominus sent a patch which went into 5.005_56. | |
825 | ||
04c70446 GS |
826 | =head2 Filenames |
827 | ||
3a4b19e4 | 828 | Keep filenames in the distribution and in the standard module set |
04c70446 | 829 | be 8.3 friendly where feasible. Good luck changing the standard |
3a4b19e4 | 830 | modules, though. |
04c70446 GS |
831 | |
832 | =head2 Foreign lines | |
833 | ||
834 | Perl should be more generous in accepting foreign line terminations. | |
835 | Mostly B<done> in 5.005. | |
836 | ||
837 | =head2 Namespace cleanup | |
838 | ||
839 | symbol-space: "pl_" prefix for all global vars | |
840 | "Perl_" prefix for all functions | |
841 | ||
842 | CPP-space: stop malloc()/free() pollution unless asked | |
843 | ||
04c70446 GS |
844 | =head2 ISA.pm |
845 | ||
846 | Rename and alter ISA.pm. B<Done>. It is now base.pm. | |
847 | ||
04c70446 GS |
848 | =head2 gettimeofday |
849 | ||
850 | See Time::HiRes. | |
851 | ||
04c70446 GS |
852 | =head2 autocroak? |
853 | ||
106325ad | 854 | This is the Fatal.pm module, so any builtin that does |
04c70446 GS |
855 | not return success automatically die()s. If you're feeling brave, tie |
856 | this in with the unified exceptions scheme. | |
857 | ||
e50bb9a1 | 858 | =cut |