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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 | |
0562c0e3 JH |
31 | =head2 Create a char *sv_printify(sv, STRLEN *lenp, UV flags) function |
32 | ||
33 | For displaying PVs with control characters, embedded nulls, and Unicode. | |
34 | This would be useful for printing warnings, or data and regex dumping, | |
35 | not_a_number(), and so on. | |
36 | ||
722d2a37 | 37 | =head2 Autoload byte.pm |
e50bb9a1 | 38 | |
722d2a37 SC |
39 | When the lexer sees, for instance, C<bytes::length>, it should |
40 | automatically load the C<bytes> pragma. | |
e50bb9a1 | 41 | |
722d2a37 | 42 | =head2 Make "\u{XXXX}" et al work |
e50bb9a1 | 43 | |
722d2a37 SC |
44 | Danger, Will Robinson! Discussing the semantics of C<"\x{F00}">, |
45 | C<"\xF00"> and C<"\U{F00}"> on P5P I<will> lead to a long and boring | |
46 | flamewar. | |
e50bb9a1 | 47 | |
722d2a37 | 48 | =head2 Overloadable regex assertions |
e50bb9a1 | 49 | |
722d2a37 SC |
50 | This may or may not be possible with the current regular expression |
51 | engine. The idea is that, for instance, C<\b> needs to be | |
52 | algorithmically computed if you're dealing with Thai text. Hence, the | |
53 | B<\b> assertion wants to be overloaded by a function. | |
e50bb9a1 | 54 | |
722d2a37 | 55 | =head2 Unicode collation and normalization |
e50bb9a1 | 56 | |
722d2a37 | 57 | Simon Cozens promises to work on this. |
e50bb9a1 | 58 | |
722d2a37 SC |
59 | Collation? http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr10/ |
60 | Normalization? http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr15/ | |
e50bb9a1 | 61 | |
722d2a37 | 62 | =head2 Unicode case mappings |
e50bb9a1 | 63 | |
722d2a37 | 64 | Case Mappings? http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr21/ |
e50bb9a1 | 65 | |
722d2a37 | 66 | =head2 Unicode regular expression character classes |
e50bb9a1 | 67 | |
722d2a37 | 68 | They have some tricks Perl doesn't yet implement. |
e50bb9a1 | 69 | |
722d2a37 | 70 | http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr18/ |
e50bb9a1 | 71 | |
722d2a37 | 72 | =head2 use Thread for iThreads |
e50bb9a1 | 73 | |
722d2a37 SC |
74 | Artur Bergman's C<iThreads> module is a start on this, but needs to |
75 | be more mature. | |
e50bb9a1 | 76 | |
dd0afe54 AB |
77 | =head2 make perl_clone optionally clone ops |
78 | ||
79 | So that pseudoforking, mod_perl, iThreads and nvi will work properly | |
80 | (but not as efficiently) until the regex engine is fixed to be threadsafe. | |
81 | ||
722d2a37 | 82 | =head2 Work out exit/die semantics for threads |
e50bb9a1 | 83 | |
722d2a37 | 84 | =head2 Typed lexicals for compiler |
e50bb9a1 | 85 | |
722d2a37 | 86 | =head2 Compiler workarounds for Win32 |
e50bb9a1 | 87 | |
722d2a37 | 88 | =head2 AUTOLOADing in the compiler |
e50bb9a1 | 89 | |
722d2a37 | 90 | =head2 Fixing comppadlist when compiling |
e50bb9a1 | 91 | |
722d2a37 | 92 | =head2 Cleaning up exported namespace |
e50bb9a1 | 93 | |
722d2a37 | 94 | =head2 Complete signal handling |
e50bb9a1 | 95 | |
722d2a37 SC |
96 | Add C<PERL_ASYNC_CHECK> to opcodes which loop; replace C<sigsetjmp> with |
97 | C<sigjmp>; check C<wait> for signal safety. | |
e50bb9a1 | 98 | |
722d2a37 | 99 | =head2 Out-of-source builds |
e50bb9a1 | 100 | |
722d2a37 | 101 | This was done for 5.6.0, but needs reworking for 5.7.x |
e50bb9a1 | 102 | |
722d2a37 | 103 | =head2 POSIX realtime support |
e50bb9a1 | 104 | |
722d2a37 SC |
105 | POSIX 1003.1 1996 Edition support--realtime stuff: POSIX semaphores, |
106 | message queues, shared memory, realtime clocks, timers, signals (the | |
107 | metaconfig units mostly already exist for these) | |
e50bb9a1 | 108 | |
722d2a37 | 109 | =head2 UNIX98 support |
e50bb9a1 | 110 | |
722d2a37 | 111 | Reader-writer locks, realtime/asynchronous IO |
e50bb9a1 | 112 | |
722d2a37 | 113 | =head2 IPv6 Support |
e50bb9a1 | 114 | |
722d2a37 SC |
115 | There are non-core modules, such as C<Net::IPv6>, but these will need |
116 | integrating when IPv6 actually starts to really happen. See RFC 2292 | |
117 | and RFC 2553. | |
e50bb9a1 | 118 | |
722d2a37 | 119 | =head2 Long double conversion |
e50bb9a1 | 120 | |
722d2a37 | 121 | Floating point formatting is still causing some weird test failures. |
e50bb9a1 | 122 | |
722d2a37 | 123 | =head2 Locales |
e50bb9a1 | 124 | |
722d2a37 SC |
125 | Locales and Unicode interact with each other in unpleasant ways. |
126 | One possible solution would be to adopt/support ICU: | |
e50bb9a1 | 127 | |
722d2a37 | 128 | http://oss.software.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/icu/project/ |
e50bb9a1 | 129 | |
722d2a37 | 130 | =head2 Thread-safe regexes |
e50bb9a1 | 131 | |
722d2a37 | 132 | The regular expression engine is currently non-threadsafe. |
e50bb9a1 | 133 | |
722d2a37 | 134 | =head2 Arithmetic on non-Arabic numerals |
e50bb9a1 | 135 | |
722d2a37 | 136 | C<[1234567890]> aren't the only numerals any more. |
e50bb9a1 | 137 | |
722d2a37 | 138 | =head2 POSIX Unicode character classes |
e50bb9a1 | 139 | |
722d2a37 SC |
140 | ([=a=] for equivalance classes, [.ch.] for collation.) |
141 | These are dependent on Unicode normalization and collation. | |
e50bb9a1 | 142 | |
722d2a37 | 143 | =head2 Factoring out common suffices/prefices in regexps (trie optimization) |
c47ff5f1 | 144 | |
722d2a37 SC |
145 | Currently, the user has to optimize C<foo|far> and C<foo|goo> into |
146 | C<f(?:oo|ar)> and C<[fg]oo> by hand; this could be done automatically. | |
e50bb9a1 | 147 | |
722d2a37 | 148 | =head2 Security audit shipped utilities |
e50bb9a1 | 149 | |
722d2a37 SC |
150 | All the code we ship with Perl needs to be sensible about temporary file |
151 | handling, locking, input validation, and so on. | |
e50bb9a1 | 152 | |
722d2a37 | 153 | =head2 Custom opcodes |
e50bb9a1 | 154 | |
722d2a37 SC |
155 | Have a way to introduce user-defined opcodes without the subroutine call |
156 | overhead of an XSUB; the user should be able to create PP code. Simon | |
157 | Cozens has some ideas on this. | |
e50bb9a1 | 158 | |
722d2a37 | 159 | =head2 spawnvp() on Win32 |
e50bb9a1 | 160 | |
722d2a37 SC |
161 | Win32 has problems spawning processes, particularly when the arguments |
162 | to the child process contain spaces, quotes or tab characters. | |
e50bb9a1 | 163 | |
722d2a37 | 164 | =head2 DLL Versioning |
e50bb9a1 | 165 | |
722d2a37 SC |
166 | Windows needs a way to know what version of a XS or C<libperl> DLL it's |
167 | loading. | |
e50bb9a1 | 168 | |
722d2a37 | 169 | =head2 Introduce @( and @) |
e50bb9a1 | 170 | |
722d2a37 SC |
171 | C<$(> may return "foo bar baz". Unfortunately, since groups can |
172 | theoretically have spaces in their names, this could be one, two or | |
173 | three groups. | |
e50bb9a1 | 174 | |
722d2a37 | 175 | =head2 Floating point handling |
e50bb9a1 | 176 | |
722d2a37 SC |
177 | C<NaN> and C<inf> support is particularly troublesome. |
178 | (fp_classify(), fp_class(), fp_class_d(), class(), isinf(), | |
179 | isfinite(), finite(), isnormal(), unordered(), <ieeefp.h>, | |
180 | <fp_class.h> (there are metaconfig units for all these) (I think), | |
181 | fp_setmask(), fp_getmask(), fp_setround(), fp_getround() | |
182 | (no metaconfig units yet for these). Don't forget finitel(), fp_classl(), | |
183 | fp_class_l(), (yes, both do, unfortunately, exist), and unorderedl().) | |
e50bb9a1 | 184 | |
722d2a37 | 185 | As of Perl 5.6.1 is a Perl macro, Perl_isnan(). |
e50bb9a1 | 186 | |
722d2a37 | 187 | =head2 IV/UV preservation |
e50bb9a1 | 188 | |
722d2a37 SC |
189 | Nicholas Clark has done a lot of work on this, but work is continuing. |
190 | C<+>, C<-> and C<*> work, but guards need to be in place for C<%>, C</>, | |
191 | C<&>, C<oct>, C<hex> and C<pack>. | |
e50bb9a1 | 192 | |
722d2a37 | 193 | =head2 Replace pod2html with something using Pod::Parser |
83df6a1d | 194 | |
722d2a37 SC |
195 | The CPAN module C<Malik::Pod::Html> may be a more suitable basis for a |
196 | C<pod2html> convertor; the current one duplicates the functionality | |
197 | abstracted in C<Pod::Parser>, which makes updating the POD language | |
198 | difficult. | |
e50bb9a1 | 199 | |
722d2a37 | 200 | =head2 Automate module testing on CPAN |
e50bb9a1 | 201 | |
722d2a37 SC |
202 | When a new Perl is being beta tested, porters have to manually grab |
203 | their favourite CPAN modules and test them - this should be done | |
204 | automatically. | |
e50bb9a1 | 205 | |
722d2a37 | 206 | =head2 sendmsg and recvmsg |
83df6a1d | 207 | |
722d2a37 SC |
208 | We have all the other BSD socket functions but these. There are |
209 | metaconfig units for these functions which can be added. To avoid these | |
210 | being new opcodes, a solution similar to the way C<sockatmark> was added | |
211 | would be preferable. (Autoload the C<IO::whatever> module.) | |
e50bb9a1 | 212 | |
722d2a37 | 213 | =head2 Rewrite perlre documentation |
e50bb9a1 | 214 | |
722d2a37 SC |
215 | The new-style patterns need full documentation, and the whole document |
216 | needs to be a lot clearer. | |
e50bb9a1 | 217 | |
722d2a37 | 218 | =head2 Convert example code to IO::Handle filehandles |
e50bb9a1 | 219 | |
722d2a37 | 220 | =head2 Document Win32 choices |
e50bb9a1 | 221 | |
722d2a37 | 222 | =head2 Check new modules |
e50bb9a1 | 223 | |
722d2a37 | 224 | =head2 Make roffitall find pods and libs itself |
e50bb9a1 | 225 | |
722d2a37 | 226 | Simon Cozens has done some work on this but it needs a rethink. |
e50bb9a1 | 227 | |
722d2a37 | 228 | =head1 To do at some point |
e50bb9a1 | 229 | |
722d2a37 SC |
230 | These are ideas that have been regularly tossed around, that most |
231 | people believe should be done maybe during 5.8.x | |
e50bb9a1 | 232 | |
722d2a37 | 233 | =head2 Remove regular expression recursion |
e50bb9a1 | 234 | |
722d2a37 SC |
235 | Because the regular expression engine is recursive, badly designed |
236 | expressions can lead to lots of recursion filling up the stack. Ilya | |
237 | claims that it is easy to convert the engine to being iterative, but | |
238 | this has still not yet been done. There may be a regular expression | |
239 | engine hit squad meeting at TPC5. | |
e50bb9a1 | 240 | |
722d2a37 | 241 | =head2 Memory leaks after failed eval |
e50bb9a1 | 242 | |
722d2a37 SC |
243 | Perl will leak memory if you C<eval "hlagh hlagh hlagh hlagh">. This is |
244 | partially because it attempts to build up an op tree for that code and | |
245 | doesn't properly free it. The same goes for non-syntactically-correct | |
246 | regular expressions. Hugo looked into this, but decided it needed a | |
247 | mark-and-sweep GC implementation. | |
e50bb9a1 | 248 | |
722d2a37 SC |
249 | Alan notes that: The basic idea was to extend the parser token stack |
250 | (C<YYSTYPE>) to include a type field so we knew what sort of thing each | |
251 | element of the stack was. The F<<perly.c> code would then have to be | |
252 | postprocessed to record the type of each entry on the stack as it was | |
253 | created, and the parser patched so that it could unroll the stack | |
254 | properly on error. | |
e50bb9a1 | 255 | |
722d2a37 SC |
256 | This is possible to do, but would be pretty messy to implement, as it |
257 | would rely on even more sed hackery in F<perly.fixer>. | |
e50bb9a1 | 258 | |
722d2a37 | 259 | =head2 pack "(stuff)*" |
e50bb9a1 | 260 | |
722d2a37 | 261 | That's to say, C<pack "(sI)40"> would be the same as C<pack "sI"x40> |
e50bb9a1 | 262 | |
722d2a37 | 263 | =head2 bitfields in pack |
e50bb9a1 | 264 | |
722d2a37 | 265 | =head2 Cross compilation |
e50bb9a1 | 266 | |
722d2a37 SC |
267 | Make Perl buildable with a cross-compiler. This will play havoc with |
268 | Configure, which needs to how how the target system will respond to | |
269 | its tests; maybe C<microperl> will be a good starting point here. | |
270 | (Indeed, Bart Schuller reports that he compiled up C<microperl> for | |
271 | the Agenda PDA and it works fine.) A really big spanner in the works | |
272 | is the bootstrapping build process of Perl: if the filesystem the | |
273 | target systems sees is not the same what the build host sees, various | |
274 | input, output, and (Perl) library files need to be copied back and forth. | |
e50bb9a1 | 275 | |
722d2a37 | 276 | =head2 Perl preprocessor / macros |
e50bb9a1 | 277 | |
722d2a37 SC |
278 | Source filters help with this, but do not get us all the way. For |
279 | instance, it should be possible to implement the C<??> operator somehow; | |
280 | source filters don't (quite) cut it. | |
e50bb9a1 | 281 | |
722d2a37 | 282 | =head2 Perl lexer in Perl |
a45bd81d | 283 | |
722d2a37 | 284 | Damian Conway is planning to work on this, but it hasn't happened yet. |
e50bb9a1 | 285 | |
722d2a37 | 286 | =head2 Using POSIX calls internally |
e50bb9a1 | 287 | |
722d2a37 SC |
288 | When faced with a BSD vs. SySV -style interface to some library or |
289 | system function, perl's roots show in that it typically prefers the BSD | |
290 | interface (but falls back to the SysV one). One example is getpgrp(). | |
291 | Other examples include C<memcpy> vs. C<bcopy>. There are others, mostly in | |
292 | F<<pp_sys.c>. | |
e50bb9a1 | 293 | |
722d2a37 SC |
294 | Mostly, this item is a suggestion for which way to start a journey into |
295 | an C<#ifdef> forest. It is not primarily a suggestion to eliminate any of | |
296 | the C<#ifdef> forests. | |
e50bb9a1 | 297 | |
722d2a37 SC |
298 | POSIX calls are perhaps more likely to be portable to unexpected |
299 | architectures. They are also perhaps more likely to be actively | |
300 | maintained by a current vendor. They are also perhaps more likely to be | |
301 | available in thread-safe versions, if appropriate. | |
e50bb9a1 | 302 | |
722d2a37 | 303 | =head2 -i rename file when changed |
e50bb9a1 | 304 | |
722d2a37 SC |
305 | It's only necessary to rename a file when inplace editing when the file |
306 | has changed. Detecting a change is perhaps the difficult bit. | |
e50bb9a1 | 307 | |
722d2a37 | 308 | =head2 All ARGV input should act like E<lt>E<gt> |
e50bb9a1 | 309 | |
722d2a37 | 310 | =head2 Support for rerunning debugger |
e50bb9a1 | 311 | |
722d2a37 | 312 | There should be a way of restarting the debugger on demand. |
e50bb9a1 | 313 | |
722d2a37 | 314 | =head2 my sub foo { } |
c47ff5f1 | 315 | |
722d2a37 SC |
316 | The basic principle is sound, but there are problems with the semantics |
317 | of self-referential and mutually referential lexical subs: how to | |
318 | declare the subs? | |
c47ff5f1 | 319 | |
722d2a37 | 320 | =head2 One-pass global destruction |
c47ff5f1 | 321 | |
722d2a37 SC |
322 | Sweeping away all the allocated memory in one go is a laudable goal, but |
323 | it's difficult and in most cases, it's easier to let the memory get | |
324 | freed by exiting. | |
e50bb9a1 | 325 | |
722d2a37 | 326 | =head2 Rewrite regexp parser |
e50bb9a1 | 327 | |
722d2a37 SC |
328 | There has been talk recently of rewriting the regular expression parser |
329 | to produce an optree instead of a chain of opcodes; it's unclear whether | |
330 | or not this would be a win. | |
e50bb9a1 | 331 | |
722d2a37 | 332 | =head2 Cache recently used regexps |
e50bb9a1 | 333 | |
722d2a37 | 334 | This is to speed up |
e50bb9a1 | 335 | |
722d2a37 SC |
336 | for my $re (@regexps) { |
337 | $matched++ if /$re/ | |
338 | } | |
e50bb9a1 | 339 | |
722d2a37 SC |
340 | C<qr//> already gives us a way of saving compiled regexps, but it should |
341 | be done automatically. | |
e50bb9a1 | 342 | |
722d2a37 | 343 | =head2 Re-entrant functions |
e50bb9a1 | 344 | |
722d2a37 SC |
345 | Add configure probes for C<_r> forms of system calls and fit them to the |
346 | core. Unfortunately, calling conventions for these functions and not | |
347 | standardised. | |
04c70446 | 348 | |
722d2a37 | 349 | =head2 Cross-compilation support |
04c70446 | 350 | |
722d2a37 SC |
351 | Bart Schuller reports that using C<microperl> and a cross-compiler, he |
352 | got Perl working on the Agenda PDA. However, one cannot build a full | |
353 | Perl because Configure needs to get the results for the target platform, | |
354 | for the host. | |
e50bb9a1 | 355 | |
722d2a37 | 356 | =head2 Bit-shifting bitvectors |
e50bb9a1 | 357 | |
722d2a37 | 358 | Given: |
e50bb9a1 | 359 | |
722d2a37 | 360 | vec($v, 1000, 1) = 1; |
e50bb9a1 | 361 | |
722d2a37 | 362 | One should be able to do |
e50bb9a1 | 363 | |
722d2a37 | 364 | $v <<= 1; |
e50bb9a1 | 365 | |
722d2a37 | 366 | and have the 999'th bit set. |
e50bb9a1 | 367 | |
722d2a37 SC |
368 | Currently if you try with shift bitvectors you shift the NV/UV, instead |
369 | of the bits in the PV. Not very logical. | |
e50bb9a1 | 370 | |
722d2a37 | 371 | =head2 debugger pragma |
e50bb9a1 | 372 | |
722d2a37 SC |
373 | The debugger is implemented in Perl in F<perl5db.pl>; turning it into a |
374 | pragma should be easy, but making it work lexically might be more | |
375 | difficult. Fiddling with C<$^P> would be necessary. | |
e50bb9a1 | 376 | |
722d2a37 | 377 | =head2 use less pragma |
e50bb9a1 | 378 | |
722d2a37 SC |
379 | Identify areas where speed/memory tradeoffs can be made and have a hint |
380 | to switch between them. | |
e50bb9a1 | 381 | |
722d2a37 | 382 | =head2 switch structures |
e50bb9a1 | 383 | |
722d2a37 SC |
384 | Although we have C<Switch.pm> in core, Larry points to the dormant |
385 | C<nswitch> and C<cswitch> ops in F<pp.c>; using these opcodes would be | |
386 | much faster. | |
e50bb9a1 | 387 | |
722d2a37 | 388 | =head2 Cache eval tree |
e50bb9a1 | 389 | |
722d2a37 | 390 | =head2 rcatmaybe |
e50bb9a1 | 391 | |
722d2a37 | 392 | =head2 Shrink opcode tables |
e50bb9a1 | 393 | |
722d2a37 | 394 | =head2 Optimize away @_ |
e50bb9a1 | 395 | |
722d2a37 | 396 | Look at the "reification" code in C<av.c> |
e50bb9a1 | 397 | |
722d2a37 | 398 | =head2 Prototypes versus indirect objects |
e50bb9a1 | 399 | |
722d2a37 | 400 | Currently, indirect object syntax bypasses prototype checks. |
e50bb9a1 | 401 | |
722d2a37 | 402 | =head2 Install HMTL |
e50bb9a1 | 403 | |
722d2a37 SC |
404 | HTML versions of the documentation need to be installed by default; a |
405 | call to C<installhtml> from C<installperl> may be all that's necessary. | |
e50bb9a1 | 406 | |
722d2a37 | 407 | =head2 Prototype method calls |
e50bb9a1 | 408 | |
722d2a37 | 409 | =head2 Return context prototype declarations |
e50bb9a1 | 410 | |
722d2a37 | 411 | =head2 magic_setisa |
e50bb9a1 | 412 | |
722d2a37 | 413 | =head2 Garbage collection |
e50bb9a1 | 414 | |
722d2a37 SC |
415 | There have been persistent mumblings about putting a mark-and-sweep |
416 | garbage detector into Perl; Alan Burlison has some ideas about this. | |
e50bb9a1 | 417 | |
722d2a37 | 418 | =head2 IO tutorial |
e50bb9a1 | 419 | |
722d2a37 | 420 | Mark-Jason Dominus has the beginnings of one of these. |
e50bb9a1 | 421 | |
722d2a37 | 422 | =head2 pack/unpack tutorial |
e50bb9a1 | 423 | |
722d2a37 | 424 | Simon Cozens has the beginnings of one of these. |
e50bb9a1 | 425 | |
722d2a37 | 426 | =head2 Rewrite perldoc |
e50bb9a1 | 427 | |
722d2a37 SC |
428 | There are a few suggestions for what to do with C<perldoc>: maybe a |
429 | full-text search, an index function, locating pages on a particular | |
430 | high-level subject, and so on. | |
e50bb9a1 | 431 | |
3958b146 | 432 | =head2 Install .3p manpages |
e50bb9a1 | 433 | |
3958b146 | 434 | This is a bone of contention; we can create C<.3p> manpages for each |
722d2a37 SC |
435 | built-in function, but should we install them by default? Tcl does this, |
436 | and it clutters up C<apropos>. | |
e50bb9a1 | 437 | |
722d2a37 | 438 | =head2 Unicode tutorial |
e50bb9a1 | 439 | |
722d2a37 | 440 | Simon Cozens promises to do this before he gets old. |
e50bb9a1 | 441 | |
722d2a37 | 442 | =head2 Update POSIX.pm for 1003.1-2 |
3958b146 | 443 | |
722d2a37 | 444 | =head2 Retargetable installation |
e50bb9a1 | 445 | |
722d2a37 | 446 | Allow C<@INC> to be changed after Perl is built. |
e50bb9a1 | 447 | |
722d2a37 | 448 | =head2 POSIX emulation on non-POSIX systems |
e50bb9a1 | 449 | |
722d2a37 SC |
450 | Make C<POSIX.pm> behave as POSIXly as possible everywhere, meaning we |
451 | have to implement POSIX equivalents for some functions if necessary. | |
e50bb9a1 | 452 | |
722d2a37 | 453 | =head2 Rename Win32 headers |
e50bb9a1 | 454 | |
722d2a37 SC |
455 | =head2 Finish off lvalue functions |
456 | ||
457 | They don't work in the debugger, and they don't work for list or hash | |
458 | slices. | |
e50bb9a1 | 459 | |
722d2a37 | 460 | =head2 Update sprintf documentation |
e50bb9a1 | 461 | |
722d2a37 | 462 | Hugo van der Sanden plans to look at this. |
e50bb9a1 | 463 | |
722d2a37 | 464 | =head2 Use fchown/fchmod internally |
e50bb9a1 | 465 | |
722d2a37 SC |
466 | This has been done in places, but needs a thorough code review. |
467 | Also fchdir is available in some platforms. | |
e50bb9a1 | 468 | |
722d2a37 | 469 | =head1 Vague ideas |
e50bb9a1 | 470 | |
722d2a37 | 471 | Ideas which have been discussed, and which may or may not happen. |
e50bb9a1 | 472 | |
722d2a37 | 473 | =head2 ref() in list context |
e50bb9a1 | 474 | |
722d2a37 SC |
475 | It's unclear what this should do or how to do it without breaking old |
476 | code. | |
e50bb9a1 | 477 | |
722d2a37 | 478 | =head2 Make tr/// return histogram |
e50bb9a1 | 479 | |
722d2a37 | 480 | There is a patch for this, but it may require Unicodification. |
e50bb9a1 | 481 | |
722d2a37 | 482 | =head2 Compile to real threaded code |
3958b146 | 483 | |
722d2a37 | 484 | =head2 Structured types |
3958b146 | 485 | |
722d2a37 | 486 | =head2 Modifiable $1 et al. |
e50bb9a1 | 487 | |
722d2a37 SC |
488 | ($x = "elephant") =~ /e(ph)/; |
489 | $1 = "g"; # $x = "elegant" | |
e50bb9a1 | 490 | |
722d2a37 SC |
491 | What happens if there are multiple (nested?) brackets? What if the |
492 | string changes between the match and the assignment? | |
e50bb9a1 | 493 | |
722d2a37 | 494 | =head2 Procedural interfaces for IO::*, etc. |
e50bb9a1 | 495 | |
722d2a37 SC |
496 | Some core modules have been accused of being overly-OO. Adding |
497 | procedural interfaces could demystify them. | |
e50bb9a1 | 498 | |
722d2a37 | 499 | =head2 RPC modules |
e50bb9a1 | 500 | |
722d2a37 | 501 | =head2 Attach/detach debugger from running program |
e50bb9a1 | 502 | |
722d2a37 SC |
503 | With C<gdb>, you can attach the debugger to a running program if you |
504 | pass the process ID. It would be good to do this with the Perl debugger | |
505 | on a running Perl program, although I'm not sure how it would be done. | |
e50bb9a1 | 506 | |
722d2a37 | 507 | =head2 Alternative RE syntax module |
e50bb9a1 | 508 | |
722d2a37 SC |
509 | use Regex::Newbie; |
510 | $re = Regex::Newbie->new | |
511 | ->start | |
512 | ->match("foo") | |
513 | ->repeat(Regex::Newbie->class("char"),3) | |
514 | ->end; | |
515 | /$re/; | |
e50bb9a1 | 516 | |
722d2a37 | 517 | =head2 GUI::Native |
e50bb9a1 | 518 | |
722d2a37 SC |
519 | A non-core module that would use "native" GUI to create graphical |
520 | applications. | |
e50bb9a1 | 521 | |
722d2a37 | 522 | =head2 foreach(reverse ...) |
e50bb9a1 | 523 | |
722d2a37 | 524 | Currently |
e50bb9a1 | 525 | |
722d2a37 | 526 | foreach (reverse @_) { ... } |
e50bb9a1 | 527 | |
722d2a37 SC |
528 | puts C<@_> on the stack, reverses it putting the reversed version on the |
529 | stack, then iterates forwards. Instead, it could be special-cased to put | |
530 | C<@_> on the stack then iterate backwards. | |
e50bb9a1 | 531 | |
722d2a37 | 532 | =head2 Constant function cache |
e50bb9a1 | 533 | |
722d2a37 | 534 | =head2 Approximate regular expression matching |
e50bb9a1 | 535 | |
722d2a37 | 536 | =head1 Ongoing |
e50bb9a1 | 537 | |
722d2a37 | 538 | These items B<always> need doing: |
e50bb9a1 | 539 | |
722d2a37 | 540 | =head2 Update guts documentation |
e50bb9a1 | 541 | |
722d2a37 SC |
542 | Simon Cozens tries to do this when possible, and contributions to the |
543 | C<perlapi> documentation is welcome. | |
e50bb9a1 | 544 | |
722d2a37 | 545 | =head2 Add more tests |
e50bb9a1 | 546 | |
722d2a37 SC |
547 | Michael Schwern will donate $500 to Yet Another Society when all core |
548 | modules have tests. | |
e50bb9a1 | 549 | |
722d2a37 | 550 | =head2 Update auxiliary tools |
e50bb9a1 | 551 | |
722d2a37 | 552 | The code we ship with Perl should look like good Perl 5. |
e50bb9a1 | 553 | |
722d2a37 | 554 | =head1 Recently done things |
e50bb9a1 | 555 | |
722d2a37 SC |
556 | These are things which have been on the todo lists in previous releases |
557 | but have recently been completed. | |
e50bb9a1 | 558 | |
722d2a37 | 559 | =head2 Safe signal handling |
e50bb9a1 | 560 | |
722d2a37 SC |
561 | A new signal model went into 5.7.1 without much fanfare. Operations and |
562 | C<malloc>s are no longer interrupted by signals, which are handled | |
563 | between opcodes. This means that C<PERL_ASYNC_CHECK> now actually does | |
564 | something. However, there are still a few things that need to be done. | |
e50bb9a1 | 565 | |
722d2a37 | 566 | =head2 Tie Modules |
e50bb9a1 | 567 | |
722d2a37 SC |
568 | Modules which implement arrays in terms of strings, substrings or files |
569 | can be found on the CPAN. | |
e50bb9a1 | 570 | |
722d2a37 | 571 | =head2 gettimeofday |
e50bb9a1 | 572 | |
722d2a37 | 573 | C<Time::Hires> has been integrated into the core. |
e50bb9a1 | 574 | |
722d2a37 | 575 | =head2 setitimer and getimiter |
e50bb9a1 | 576 | |
722d2a37 | 577 | Adding C<Time::Hires> got us this too. |
e50bb9a1 | 578 | |
722d2a37 SC |
579 | =head2 Testing __DIE__ hook |
580 | ||
581 | Tests have been added. | |
582 | ||
583 | =head2 CPP equivalent in Perl | |
e50bb9a1 | 584 | |
722d2a37 SC |
585 | A C Yardley will probably have done this by the time you can read this. |
586 | This allows for a generalization of the C constant detection used in | |
587 | building C<Errno.pm>. | |
e50bb9a1 | 588 | |
722d2a37 | 589 | =head2 Explicit switch statements |
e50bb9a1 | 590 | |
722d2a37 SC |
591 | C<Switch.pm> has been integrated into the core to give you all manner of |
592 | C<switch...case> semantics. | |
e50bb9a1 | 593 | |
722d2a37 | 594 | =head2 autocroak |
e50bb9a1 | 595 | |
722d2a37 | 596 | This is C<Fatal.pm>. |
e50bb9a1 | 597 | |
722d2a37 | 598 | =head2 UTF/EBCDIC |
e50bb9a1 | 599 | |
722d2a37 | 600 | Nick Ing-Simmons has made UTF-EBCDIC (UTR13) work with Perl. |
e50bb9a1 | 601 | |
722d2a37 | 602 | EBCDIC? http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr16/ |
e50bb9a1 | 603 | |
722d2a37 | 604 | =head2 UTF Regexes |
e50bb9a1 | 605 | |
722d2a37 SC |
606 | Although there are probably some small bugs to be rooted out, Jarkko |
607 | Hietaniemi has made regular expressions polymorphic between bytes and | |
608 | characters. | |
e50bb9a1 | 609 | |
722d2a37 | 610 | =head2 perlcc to produce executable |
e50bb9a1 | 611 | |
722d2a37 SC |
612 | C<perlcc> was recently rewritten, and can now produce standalone |
613 | executables. | |
e50bb9a1 | 614 | |
722d2a37 | 615 | =head2 END blocks saved in compiled output |
e50bb9a1 | 616 | |
722d2a37 | 617 | =head2 Secure temporary file module |
e50bb9a1 | 618 | |
722d2a37 | 619 | Tim Jenness' C<File::Temp> is now in core. |
e50bb9a1 | 620 | |
722d2a37 | 621 | =head2 Integrate Time::HiRes |
e50bb9a1 | 622 | |
722d2a37 | 623 | This module is now part of core. |
e50bb9a1 | 624 | |
722d2a37 | 625 | =head2 Turn Cwd into XS |
e50bb9a1 | 626 | |
722d2a37 | 627 | Benjamin Sugars has done this. |
e50bb9a1 | 628 | |
722d2a37 | 629 | =head2 Mmap for input |
e50bb9a1 | 630 | |
722d2a37 | 631 | Nick Ing-Simmons' C<perlio> supports an C<mmap> IO method. |
e50bb9a1 | 632 | |
722d2a37 | 633 | =head2 Byte to/from UTF8 and UTF8 to/from local conversion |
e50bb9a1 | 634 | |
722d2a37 | 635 | C<Encode> provides this. |
e50bb9a1 | 636 | |
722d2a37 | 637 | =head2 Add sockatmark support |
e50bb9a1 | 638 | |
722d2a37 | 639 | Added in 5.7.1 |
e50bb9a1 | 640 | |
722d2a37 SC |
641 | =head2 Mailing list archives |
642 | ||
643 | http://lists.perl.org/, http://archive.develooper.com/ | |
644 | ||
645 | =head2 Bug tracking | |
646 | ||
647 | Richard Foley has written the bug tracking system at http://bugs.perl.org/ | |
e50bb9a1 | 648 | |
722d2a37 | 649 | =head2 Integrate MacPerl |
e50bb9a1 | 650 | |
722d2a37 SC |
651 | Chris Nandor and Matthias Neeracher have integrated the MacPerl changes |
652 | into 5.6.0. | |
e50bb9a1 | 653 | |
722d2a37 | 654 | =head2 Web "nerve center" for Perl |
e50bb9a1 | 655 | |
722d2a37 | 656 | http://use.perl.org/ is what you're looking for. |
e50bb9a1 | 657 | |
722d2a37 | 658 | =head2 Regular expression tutorial |
e50bb9a1 | 659 | |
722d2a37 | 660 | C<perlretut>, provided by Mark Kvale. |
e50bb9a1 | 661 | |
722d2a37 | 662 | =head2 Debugging Tutorial |
e50bb9a1 | 663 | |
722d2a37 | 664 | C<perldebtut>, written by Richard Foley. |
e50bb9a1 | 665 | |
722d2a37 | 666 | =head2 Integrate new modules |
e50bb9a1 | 667 | |
722d2a37 | 668 | Jarkko has been integrating madly into 5.7.x |
e50bb9a1 | 669 | |
722d2a37 | 670 | =head2 Integrate profiler |
e50bb9a1 | 671 | |
722d2a37 | 672 | C<Devel::DProf> is now a core module. |
e50bb9a1 | 673 | |
722d2a37 | 674 | =head2 Y2K error detection |
e50bb9a1 | 675 | |
722d2a37 SC |
676 | There's a configure option to detect unsafe concatenation with "19", and |
677 | a CPAN module. (C<D'oh::Year>) | |
e50bb9a1 | 678 | |
722d2a37 | 679 | =head2 Regular expression debugger |
e50bb9a1 | 680 | |
722d2a37 SC |
681 | While not part of core, Mark-Jason Dominus has written C<Rx> and has |
682 | also come up with a generalised strategy for regular expression | |
683 | debugging. | |
e50bb9a1 | 684 | |
722d2a37 | 685 | =head2 POD checker |
e50bb9a1 | 686 | |
722d2a37 | 687 | That's, uh, F<podchecker> |
e50bb9a1 | 688 | |
722d2a37 | 689 | =head2 "Dynamic" lexicals |
e50bb9a1 | 690 | |
722d2a37 | 691 | =head2 Cache precompiled modules |
e50bb9a1 | 692 | |
722d2a37 | 693 | =head1 Deprecated Wishes |
e50bb9a1 | 694 | |
722d2a37 SC |
695 | These are items which used to be in the todo file, but have been |
696 | deprecated for some reason. | |
e50bb9a1 | 697 | |
722d2a37 | 698 | =head2 Loop control on do{} |
e50bb9a1 | 699 | |
722d2a37 | 700 | This would break old code; use C<do{{ }}> instead. |
e50bb9a1 | 701 | |
722d2a37 | 702 | =head2 Lexically scoped typeglobs |
e50bb9a1 | 703 | |
722d2a37 | 704 | Not needed now we have lexical IO handles. |
e50bb9a1 | 705 | |
722d2a37 | 706 | =head2 format BOTTOM |
3958b146 | 707 | |
722d2a37 | 708 | =head2 report HANDLE |
e50bb9a1 | 709 | |
722d2a37 | 710 | Damian Conway's text formatting modules seem to be the Way To Go. |
e50bb9a1 | 711 | |
722d2a37 | 712 | =head2 Generalised want()/caller()) |
3958b146 | 713 | |
722d2a37 | 714 | =head2 Named prototypes |
e50bb9a1 | 715 | |
722d2a37 | 716 | These both seem to be delayed until Perl 6. |
e50bb9a1 | 717 | |
722d2a37 | 718 | =head2 Built-in globbing |
e50bb9a1 | 719 | |
722d2a37 | 720 | The C<File::Glob> module has been used to replace the C<glob> function. |
e50bb9a1 | 721 | |
722d2a37 | 722 | =head2 Regression tests for suidperl |
e50bb9a1 | 723 | |
722d2a37 | 724 | C<suidperl> is deprecated in favour of common sense. |
e50bb9a1 | 725 | |
722d2a37 | 726 | =head2 Cached hash values |
e50bb9a1 | 727 | |
722d2a37 | 728 | We have shared hash keys, which perform the same job. |
e50bb9a1 | 729 | |
722d2a37 | 730 | =head2 Add compression modules |
e50bb9a1 | 731 | |
722d2a37 SC |
732 | The compression modules are a little heavy; meanwhile, Nick Clark is |
733 | working on experimental pragmata to do transparent decompression on | |
734 | input. | |
e50bb9a1 | 735 | |
722d2a37 | 736 | =head2 Reorganise documentation into tutorials/references |
e50bb9a1 | 737 | |
722d2a37 | 738 | Could not get consensus on P5P about this. |
e50bb9a1 | 739 | |
722d2a37 SC |
740 | =head2 Remove distinction between functions and operators |
741 | ||
742 | Caution: highly flammable. | |
743 | ||
744 | =head2 Make XS easier to use | |
e50bb9a1 | 745 | |
722d2a37 | 746 | Use C<Inline> instead, or SWIG. |
e50bb9a1 | 747 | |
722d2a37 | 748 | =head2 Make embedding easier to use |
e50bb9a1 | 749 | |
722d2a37 | 750 | Use C<Inline::CPR>. |
e50bb9a1 | 751 | |
722d2a37 | 752 | =head2 man for perl |
04c70446 | 753 | |
722d2a37 | 754 | See the Perl Power Tools. (http://language.perl.com/ppt/) |
04c70446 | 755 | |
722d2a37 | 756 | =head2 my $Package::variable |
04c70446 | 757 | |
722d2a37 | 758 | Use C<our> instead. |
04c70446 | 759 | |
722d2a37 | 760 | =head2 "or" tests defined, not truth |
04c70446 | 761 | |
722d2a37 | 762 | Suggesting this on P5P B<will> cause a boring and interminable flamewar. |
04c70446 | 763 | |
722d2a37 | 764 | =head2 "class"-based lexicals |
04c70446 | 765 | |
cbb3fa72 | 766 | Use flyweight objects, secure hashes or, dare I say it, pseudo-hashes instead. |
04c70446 | 767 | |
722d2a37 | 768 | =head2 byteperl |
04c70446 | 769 | |
722d2a37 | 770 | C<ByteLoader> covers this. |
04c70446 | 771 | |
722d2a37 | 772 | =head2 Lazy evaluation / tail recursion removal |
04c70446 | 773 | |
722d2a37 SC |
774 | C<List::Util> in core gives some of these; tail recursion removal is |
775 | done manually, with C<goto &whoami;>. (However, MJD has found that | |
776 | C<goto &whoami> introduces a performance penalty, so maybe there should | |
777 | be a way to do this after all: C<sub foo {START: ... goto START;> is | |
778 | better.) | |
0562c0e3 JH |
779 | |
780 | =head2 Make "use utf8" the default | |
781 | ||
782 | There is a patch available for this, search p5p archives for | |
783 | the Subject "[EXPERIMENTAL PATCH] make unicode (utf8) default" | |
784 | but this would be unacceptable because of backward compatibility: | |
785 | scripts could not contain B<any legacy eight-bit data>. Also would | |
786 | introduce a measurable slowdown of at least few percentages since all | |
787 | regular expression operations would be done in full UTF-8. | |
788 |