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7711098a GS |
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 | ||
33 | The system we've developed will eventually be recipient of perlbug | |
34 | mail. New bugs are entered into a mysql database, and sent on to | |
35 | perl5-porters with the subject line rewritten to include a "ticket | |
36 | number" (unique ID for the new bug). If the incoming message already | |
37 | had a ticket number in the subject line, then the message is logged | |
38 | against that bug. There is a separate email interface (not forwarding | |
39 | to p5p) that permits porters to claim, categorize, and close tickets. | |
40 | ||
41 | The next desire is a web interface. It is hoped that code can be | |
42 | reused between the mail and the web interfaces. | |
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 | ||
47 | We're probably going to need a bugmaster, someone who will look at | |
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 | |
88 | the reliability and extensability have come at a cost of speed. The | |
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 | ||
114 | =head2 our ($var) | |
115 | ||
116 | Declare global variables (lexically or otherwise). | |
117 | ||
118 | =head2 64-bit Perl | |
119 | ||
120 | Verify complete 64 bit support so that the value of sysseek, or C<-s>, or | |
121 | stat(), or tell can fit into a perl number without losing precision. | |
122 | Work with the perl-64bit mailing list on perl.org. | |
123 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
124 | =head2 Prototypes |
125 | ||
126 | =over 4 | |
127 | ||
128 | =item Named prototypes | |
129 | ||
130 | Add proper named prototypes that actually work usefully. | |
131 | ||
132 | =item Indirect objects | |
133 | ||
134 | Fix prototype bug that forgets indirect objects. | |
135 | ||
136 | =item Method calls | |
137 | ||
138 | Prototypes for method calls. | |
139 | ||
140 | =item Context | |
141 | ||
142 | Return context prototype declarations. | |
143 | ||
144 | =item Scoped subs | |
145 | ||
146 | lexically-scoped subs, e.g. my sub | |
147 | ||
148 | =back | |
149 | ||
150 | =head2 Built-in globbing | |
151 | ||
152 | Currently the C<E<lt>*.cE<gt>> syntax calls the c shell. This causes | |
153 | problems on sites without csh, systems where fork() is expensive, and | |
154 | setuid environments. Decide between Glob::BSD and File::KGlob, move | |
155 | it into the core, and make Perl use it for globbing. Ben Holzman and | |
156 | Tye McQueen have claimed the pumpkin for this. | |
157 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
158 | =head1 Perl Internals |
159 | ||
160 | =head2 magic_setisa | |
161 | ||
162 | C<magic_setisa> should be made to update %FIELDS [???] | |
163 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
164 | =head2 Garbage Collection |
165 | ||
166 | There was talk of a mark-and-sweep garbage collector at TPC2, but the | |
167 | (to users) unpredictable nature of its behaviour put some off. | |
168 | Sarathy, I believe, did the work. Here's what he has to say: | |
169 | ||
170 | Yeah, I hope to implement it someday too. The points that were | |
171 | raised in TPC2 were all to do with calling DESTROY() methods, but | |
172 | I think we can accomodate that by extending bless() to stash | |
173 | extra information for objects so we track their lifetime accurately | |
174 | for those that want their DESTROY() to be predictable (this will be | |
175 | a speed hit, naturally, and will therefore be optional, naturally. :) | |
176 | ||
177 | [N.B. Don't even ask me about this now! When I have the time to | |
178 | write a cogent summary, I'll post it.] | |
179 | ||
180 | =head2 Reliable signals | |
181 | ||
182 | Sarathy and Dan Sugalski are working on this. Chip posted a patch | |
183 | earlier, but it was not accepted into 5.005. The issue is tricky, | |
184 | because it has the potential to greatly slow down the core. | |
185 | ||
186 | There are at least three things to consider: | |
187 | ||
188 | =over 4 | |
189 | ||
190 | =item Alternate runops() for signal despatch | |
191 | ||
192 | Sarathy and Dan are discussed this on perl5-porters. | |
193 | ||
194 | =item Figure out how to die() in delayed sighandler | |
195 | ||
196 | =item Add tests for Thread::Signal | |
197 | ||
198 | =item Automatic tests against CPAN | |
199 | ||
200 | Is there some way to automatically build all/most of CPAN with | |
201 | the new Perl and check that the modules there pass all the tests? | |
202 | ||
203 | =back | |
204 | ||
205 | =head2 Interpolated regex performance bugs | |
206 | ||
207 | while (<>) { | |
208 | $found = 0; | |
209 | foreach $pat (@patterns) { | |
210 | $found++ if /$pat/o; | |
211 | } | |
212 | print if $found; | |
213 | } | |
214 | ||
215 | The qr// syntax added in 5.005 has solved this problem, but | |
216 | it needs more thorough documentation. | |
217 | ||
218 | =head2 Memory leaks from failed eval/regcomp | |
219 | ||
220 | The only known memory leaks in Perl are in failed code or regexp | |
221 | compilation. Fix this. Hugo Van Der Sanden will attempt this but | |
222 | won't have tuits until January 1999. | |
223 | ||
224 | =head2 Make XS easier to use | |
225 | ||
226 | There was interest in SWIG from porters, but nothing has happened | |
227 | lately. | |
228 | ||
229 | =head2 Make embedded Perl easier to use | |
230 | ||
231 | This is probably difficult for the same reasons that "XS For Dummies" | |
232 | will be difficult. | |
233 | ||
234 | =head2 Namespace cleanup | |
235 | ||
04c70446 | 236 | CPP-space: restrict CPP symbols exported from headers |
e50bb9a1 GS |
237 | header-space: move into CORE/perl/ |
238 | API-space: begin list of things that constitute public api | |
766b5730 | 239 | env-space: Configure should use PERL_CONFIG instead of CONFIG etc. |
e50bb9a1 GS |
240 | |
241 | =head2 MULTIPLICITY | |
242 | ||
243 | Complete work on safe recursive interpreters C<Perl-E<gt>new()>. | |
244 | Sarathy says that a reference implementation exists. | |
245 | ||
246 | =head2 MacPerl | |
247 | ||
248 | Chris Nandor and Matthias Neeracher are working on better integrating | |
249 | MacPerl into the Perl distribution. | |
250 | ||
251 | =head1 Documentation | |
252 | ||
253 | There's a lot of documentation that comes with Perl. The quantity of | |
254 | documentation makes it difficult for users to know which section of | |
255 | which manpage to read in order to solve their problem. Tom | |
256 | Christiansen has done much of the documentation work in the past. | |
257 | ||
258 | =head2 A clear division into tutorial and reference | |
259 | ||
260 | Some manpages (e.g., perltoot and perlreftut) clearly set out to | |
261 | educate the reader about a subject. Other manpages (e.g., perlsub) | |
262 | are references for which there is no tutorial, or are references with | |
263 | a slight tutorial bent. If things are either tutorial or reference, | |
264 | then the reader knows which manpage to read to learn about a subject, | |
265 | and which manpage to read to learn all about an aspect of that | |
266 | subject. Part of the solution to this is: | |
267 | ||
268 | =head2 Remove the artificial distinction between operators and functions | |
269 | ||
270 | History shows us that users, and often porters, aren't clear on the | |
271 | operator-function distinction. The present split in reference | |
272 | material between perlfunc and perlop hinders user navigation. Given | |
273 | that perlfunc is by far the larger of the two, move operator reference | |
274 | into perlfunc. | |
275 | ||
276 | =head2 More tutorials | |
277 | ||
278 | More documents of a tutorial nature could help. Here are some | |
279 | candidates: | |
280 | ||
281 | =over 4 | |
282 | ||
283 | =item Regular expressions | |
284 | ||
285 | Robin Berjon (r.berjon@ltconsulting.net) has volunteered. | |
286 | ||
287 | =item I/O | |
288 | ||
289 | Mark-Jason Dominus (mjd@plover.com) has an outline for perliotut. | |
290 | ||
291 | =item pack/unpack | |
292 | ||
293 | This is badly needed. There has been some discussion on the | |
294 | subject on perl5-porters. | |
295 | ||
296 | =item Debugging | |
297 | ||
298 | Ronald Kimball (rjk@linguist.dartmouth.edu) has volunteered. | |
299 | ||
300 | =head2 Include a search tool | |
301 | ||
302 | perldoc should be able to 'grep' fulltext indices of installed POD | |
303 | files. This would let people say: | |
304 | ||
305 | perldoc -find printing numbers with commas | |
306 | ||
307 | and get back the perlfaq entry on 'commify'. | |
308 | ||
309 | This solution, however, requires documentation to contain the keywords | |
310 | the user is searching for. Even when the users know what they're | |
311 | looking for, often they can't spell it. | |
312 | ||
313 | =head2 Include a locate tool | |
314 | ||
315 | perldoc should be able to help people find the manpages on a | |
316 | particular high-level subject: | |
317 | ||
318 | perldoc -find web | |
319 | ||
320 | would tell them manpages, web pages, and books with material on web | |
321 | programming. Similarly C<perldoc -find databases>, C<perldoc -find | |
322 | references> and so on. | |
323 | ||
324 | We need something in the vicinity of: | |
325 | ||
326 | % perl -help random stuff | |
327 | No documentation for perl function `random stuff' found | |
328 | The following entry in perlfunc.pod matches /random/a: | |
329 | =item rand EXPR | |
330 | ||
331 | =item rand | |
332 | ||
333 | Returns a random fractional number greater than or equal to C<0> and less | |
334 | than the value of EXPR. (EXPR should be positive.) If EXPR is | |
335 | omitted, the value C<1> is used. Automatically calls C<srand()> unless | |
336 | C<srand()> has already been called. See also C<srand()>. | |
337 | ||
338 | (Note: If your rand function consistently returns numbers that are too | |
339 | large or too small, then your version of Perl was probably compiled | |
340 | with the wrong number of RANDBITS.) | |
341 | The following pod pages seem to have /stuff/a: | |
342 | perlfunc.pod (7 hits) | |
343 | perlfaq7.pod (6 hits) | |
344 | perlmod.pod (4 hits) | |
345 | perlsyn.pod (3 hits) | |
346 | perlfaq8.pod (2 hits) | |
347 | perlipc.pod (2 hits) | |
348 | perl5004delta.pod (1 hit) | |
349 | perl5005delta.pod (1 hit) | |
350 | perlcall.pod (1 hit) | |
351 | perldelta.pod (1 hit) | |
352 | perlfaq3.pod (1 hit) | |
353 | perlfaq5.pod (1 hit) | |
354 | perlhist.pod (1 hit) | |
355 | perlref.pod (1 hit) | |
356 | perltoc.pod (1 hit) | |
357 | perltrap.pod (1 hit) | |
358 | Proceed to open perlfunc.pod? [y] n | |
359 | Do you want to speak perl interactively? [y] n | |
360 | Should I dial 911? [y] n | |
361 | Do you need psychiatric help? [y] y | |
362 | <PELIZA> Hi, what bothers you today? | |
363 | A Python programmer in the next cubby is driving me nuts! | |
364 | <PELIZA> Hmm, thats fixable. Just [rest censored] | |
365 | ||
366 | =head2 Separate function manpages by default | |
367 | ||
368 | Perl should install 'manpages' for every function/operator into the | |
369 | 3pl or 3p manual section. By default. The splitman program in the | |
370 | Perl source distribution does the work of turning big perlfunc into | |
371 | little 3p pages. | |
372 | ||
373 | =head2 Users can't find the manpages | |
374 | ||
375 | Make C<perldoc> tell users what they need to add to their .login or | |
376 | .cshrc to set their MANPATH correctly. | |
377 | ||
378 | =head2 Install ALL Documentation | |
379 | ||
380 | Make the standard documentation kit include the VMS, OS/2, Win32, | |
3724d6f4 JD |
381 | Threads, etc information. installperl and pod/Makefile should know |
382 | enough to copy README.foo to perlfoo.pod before building everything, | |
383 | when appropriate. | |
e50bb9a1 GS |
384 | |
385 | =head2 Outstanding issues to be documented | |
386 | ||
387 | Tom has a list of 5.005_5* features or changes that require | |
388 | documentation. | |
389 | ||
390 | Create one document that coherently explains the delta between the | |
391 | last camel release and the current release. perldelta was supposed | |
392 | to be that, but no longer. The things in perldelta never seemed to | |
393 | get placed in the right places in the real manpages, either. This | |
394 | needs work. | |
395 | ||
04c70446 GS |
396 | =head2 Adapt www.linuxhq.com for Perl |
397 | ||
398 | This should help glorify documentation and get more people involved in | |
399 | perl development. | |
400 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
401 | =head2 Replace man with a perl program |
402 | ||
403 | Can we reimplement man in Perl? Tom has a start. I believe some of | |
404 | the Linux systems distribute a manalike. Alternatively, build on | |
405 | perldoc to remove the unfeatures like "is slow" and "has no apropos". | |
406 | ||
407 | =head2 Unicode tutorial | |
408 | ||
409 | We could use more work on helping people understand Perl's new | |
410 | Unicode support that Larry has created. | |
411 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
412 | =head1 Modules |
413 | ||
414 | =head2 Update the POSIX extension to conform with the POSIX 1003.1 Edition 2 | |
415 | ||
416 | The current state of the POSIX extension is as of Edition 1, 1991, | |
417 | whereas the Edition 2 came out in 1996. ISO/IEC 9945:1-1996(E), | |
418 | ANSI/IEEE Std 1003.1, 1996 Edition. ISBN 1-55937-573-6. The updates | |
419 | were legion: threads, IPC, and real time extensions. | |
420 | ||
421 | =head2 Module versions | |
422 | ||
423 | Automate the checking of versions in the standard distribution so | |
424 | it's easy for a pumpking to check whether CPAN has a newer version | |
425 | that we should be including? | |
426 | ||
427 | =head2 New modules | |
428 | ||
429 | Which modules should be added to the standard distribution? This ties | |
430 | in with the SDK discussed on the perl-sdk list at perl.org. | |
431 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
432 | =head2 Profiler |
433 | ||
434 | Make the profiler (Devel::DProf) part of the standard release, and | |
435 | document it well. | |
436 | ||
437 | =head2 Tie Modules | |
438 | ||
439 | =over 4 | |
440 | ||
441 | =item VecArray | |
442 | ||
443 | Implement array using vec(). Nathan Torkington has working code to | |
444 | do this. | |
445 | ||
446 | =item SubstrArray | |
447 | ||
448 | Implement array using substr() | |
449 | ||
450 | =item VirtualArray | |
451 | ||
452 | Implement array using a file | |
453 | ||
454 | =item ShiftSplice | |
455 | ||
456 | Defines shift et al in terms of splice method | |
457 | ||
458 | =back | |
459 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
460 | =head2 Procedural options |
461 | ||
462 | Support procedural interfaces for the common cases of Perl's | |
463 | gratuitously OOO modules. Tom objects to "use IO::File" reading many | |
464 | thousands of lines of code. | |
465 | ||
466 | =head2 RPC | |
467 | ||
468 | Write a module for transparent, portable remote procedure calls. (Not | |
469 | core). This touches on the CORBA and ILU work. | |
470 | ||
471 | =head2 y2k localtime/gmtime | |
472 | ||
473 | Write a module, Y2k::Catch, which overloads localtime and gmtime's | |
474 | returned year value and catches "bad" attempts to use it. | |
475 | ||
476 | =head2 Export File::Find variables | |
477 | ||
478 | Make File::Find export C<$name> etc manually, at least if asked to. | |
479 | ||
480 | =head2 Ioctl | |
481 | ||
482 | Finish a proper Ioctl module. | |
483 | ||
484 | =head2 Debugger attach/detach | |
485 | ||
486 | Permit a user to debug an already-running program. | |
487 | ||
488 | =head2 Regular Expression debugger | |
489 | ||
490 | Create a visual profiler/debugger tool that stepped you through the | |
491 | execution of a regular expression point by point. Ilya has a module | |
492 | to color-code and display regular expression parses and executions. | |
493 | There's something at http://tkworld.org/ that might be a good start, | |
494 | it's a Tk/Tcl RE wizard, that builds regexen of many flavours. | |
495 | ||
496 | =head2 Alternative RE Syntax | |
497 | ||
498 | Make an alternative regular expression syntax that is accessed through | |
499 | a module. For instance, | |
500 | ||
501 | use RE; | |
502 | $re = start_of_line() | |
503 | ->literal("1998/10/08") | |
504 | ->optional( whitespace() ) | |
505 | ->literal("[") | |
506 | ->remember( many( or( "-", digit() ) ) ); | |
507 | ||
508 | if (/$re/) { | |
509 | print "time is $1\n"; | |
510 | } | |
511 | ||
512 | Newbies to regular expressions typically only use a subset of the full | |
513 | language. Perhaps you wouldn't have to implement the full feature set. | |
514 | ||
515 | =head2 Bundled modules | |
516 | ||
517 | Nicholas Clark (nick@flirble.org) had a patch for storing modules in | |
518 | zipped format. This needs exploring and concluding. | |
519 | ||
520 | =head2 Expect | |
521 | ||
522 | Adopt IO::Tty, make it as portable as Don Libes' "expect" (can we link | |
523 | against expect code?), and perfect a Perl version of expect. IO::Tty | |
524 | and expect could then be distributed as part of the core distribution, | |
525 | replacing Comm.pl and other hacks. | |
526 | ||
527 | =head2 GUI::Native | |
528 | ||
529 | A simple-to-use interface to native graphical abilities would | |
530 | be welcomed. Oh, Perl's access Tk is nice enough, and reasonably | |
531 | portable, but it's not particularly as fast as one would like. | |
532 | Simple access to the mouse's cut buffer or mouse-presses shouldn't | |
533 | required loading a few terabytes of Tk code. | |
534 | ||
535 | =head2 Update semibroken auxiliary tools; h2ph, a2p, etc. | |
536 | ||
537 | Kurt Starsinic is working on h2ph. mjd has fixed bugs in a2p in the | |
538 | past. a2p apparently doesn't work on nawk and gawk extensions. | |
539 | Graham Barr has an Include module that does h2ph work at runtime. | |
540 | ||
541 | =head2 POD Converters | |
542 | ||
543 | Brad's PodParser code needs to become part of the core, and the Pod::* | |
544 | and pod2* programs rewritten to use this standard parser. Currently | |
545 | the converters take different options, some behave in different | |
546 | fashions, and some are more picky than others in terms of the POD | |
547 | files they accept. | |
548 | ||
549 | =head2 pod2html | |
550 | ||
551 | A short-term fix: pod2html generates absolute HTML links. Make it | |
552 | generate relative links. | |
553 | ||
554 | =head2 Podchecker | |
555 | ||
556 | Something like lint for Pod would be good. Something that catches | |
557 | common errors as well as gross ones. Brad Appleton is putting | |
558 | together something as part of his PodParser work. | |
559 | ||
560 | =head1 Tom's Wishes | |
561 | ||
562 | =head2 Webperl | |
563 | ||
564 | Design a webperl environment that's as tightly integrated and as | |
565 | easy-to-use as Perl's current command-line environment. | |
566 | ||
567 | =head2 Mobile agents | |
568 | ||
569 | More work on a safe and secure execution environment for mobile | |
570 | agents would be neat; the Safe.pm module is a start, but there's a | |
571 | still a lot to be done in that area. Adopt Penguin? | |
572 | ||
573 | =head2 POSIX on non-POSIX | |
574 | ||
575 | Standard programming constructs for non-POSIX systems would help a | |
576 | lot of programmers stuck on primitive, legacy systems. For example, | |
577 | Microsoft still hasn't made a usable POSIX interface on their clunky | |
578 | systems, which means that standard operations such as alarm() and | |
579 | fork(), both critical for sophisticated client-server programming, | |
580 | must both be kludged around. | |
581 | ||
582 | I'm unsure whether Tom means to emulate alarm( )and fork(), or merely | |
583 | to provide a document like perlport.pod to say which features are | |
584 | portable and which are not. | |
585 | ||
586 | =head2 Portable installations | |
587 | ||
588 | Figure out a portable semi-gelled installation, that is, one without | |
589 | full paths. Larry has said that he's thinking about this. Ilya | |
590 | pointed out that perllib_mangle() is good for this. | |
591 | ||
592 | =head1 Win32 Stuff | |
593 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
594 | =head2 Get PERL_OBJECT building under gcc |
595 | ||
596 | B<Part done>, according to Sarathy. It builds under egcs on win32, | |
597 | but doesn't run for occult reasons. If anyone knows the right | |
598 | breed of chicken to sacrifice, please speak up. | |
599 | ||
600 | =head2 Rename new headers to be consistent with the rest | |
601 | ||
602 | =head2 Sort out the spawnvp() mess | |
603 | ||
604 | =head2 Work out DLL versioning | |
605 | ||
606 | =head2 Get PERL_OBJECT building on non-win32 | |
607 | ||
608 | =head2 Style-check | |
609 | ||
610 | =head1 Would be nice to have | |
611 | ||
612 | =over 4 | |
613 | ||
614 | =item C<pack "(stuff)*"> | |
615 | ||
616 | =item Contiguous bitfields in pack/unpack | |
617 | ||
618 | =item lexperl | |
619 | ||
620 | =item Bundled perl preprocessor | |
621 | ||
622 | =item Use posix calls internally where possible | |
623 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
624 | =item format BOTTOM |
625 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
626 | =item -i rename file only when successfully changed |
627 | ||
628 | =item All ARGV input should act like <> | |
629 | ||
630 | =item report HANDLE [formats]. | |
631 | ||
632 | =item support in perlmain to rerun debugger | |
633 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
634 | =item lvalue functions |
635 | ||
636 | Tuomas Lukka, on behalf of the PDL project, greatly desires this and | |
637 | Ilya has a patch for it (probably against an older version of Perl). | |
638 | Tuomas points out that what PDL really wants is lvalue I<methods>, | |
639 | not just subs. | |
640 | ||
641 | =back | |
642 | ||
643 | =head1 Possible pragmas | |
644 | ||
645 | =head2 'less' | |
646 | ||
647 | (use less memory, CPU) | |
648 | ||
649 | =head1 Optimizations | |
650 | ||
651 | =head2 constant function cache | |
652 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
653 | =head2 foreach(reverse...) |
654 | ||
655 | =head2 Cache eval tree | |
656 | ||
657 | Unless lexical outer scope used (mark in &compiling?). | |
658 | ||
659 | =head2 rcatmaybe | |
660 | ||
661 | =head2 Shrink opcode tables | |
662 | ||
663 | Via multiple implementations selected in peep. | |
664 | ||
665 | =head2 Cache hash value | |
666 | ||
667 | Not a win, according to Guido. | |
668 | ||
669 | =head2 Optimize away @_ where possible | |
670 | ||
671 | =head2 Optimize sort by { $a <=> $b } | |
672 | ||
673 | Greg Bacon added several more sort optimizations. These have | |
674 | made it into 5.005_55, thanks to Hans Mulder. | |
675 | ||
676 | =head2 Rewrite regexp parser for better integrated optimization | |
677 | ||
678 | The regexp parser was rewritten for 5.005. Ilya's the regexp guru. | |
679 | ||
680 | =head1 Vague possibilities | |
681 | ||
682 | =over 4 | |
683 | ||
684 | =item ref function in list context | |
685 | ||
686 | This seems impossible to do without substantially breaking code. | |
687 | ||
688 | =item make tr/// return histogram in list context? | |
689 | ||
690 | =item Loop control on do{} et al | |
691 | ||
692 | =item Explicit switch statements | |
693 | ||
694 | Nobody has yet managed to come up with a switch syntax that would | |
695 | allow for mixed hash, constant, regexp checks. Submit implementation | |
696 | with syntax, please. | |
697 | ||
698 | =item compile to real threaded code | |
699 | ||
700 | =item structured types | |
701 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
702 | =item Modifiable $1 et al |
703 | ||
704 | The intent is for this to be a means of editing the matched portions of | |
705 | the target string. | |
706 | ||
707 | =back | |
708 | ||
709 | =head1 To Do Or Not To Do | |
710 | ||
711 | These are things that have been discussed in the past and roundly | |
712 | criticized for being of questionable value. | |
713 | ||
714 | =head2 Making my() work on "package" variables | |
715 | ||
716 | Being able to say my($Foo::Bar), something that sounds ludicrous and | |
717 | the 5.006 pumpking has mocked. | |
718 | ||
719 | =head2 "or" testing defined not truth | |
720 | ||
721 | We tell people that C<||> can be used to give a default value to a | |
722 | variable: | |
723 | ||
724 | $children = shift || 5; # default is 5 children | |
725 | ||
726 | which is almost (but not): | |
727 | ||
728 | $children = shift; | |
729 | $children = 5 unless $children; | |
730 | ||
731 | but if the first argument was given and is "0", then it will be | |
732 | considered false by C<||> and C<5> used instead. Really we want | |
04c70446 | 733 | an C<||>-like operator that behaves like: |
e50bb9a1 GS |
734 | |
735 | $children = shift; | |
736 | $children = 5 unless defined $children; | |
737 | ||
04c70446 GS |
738 | Namely, a C<||> that tests defined-ness rather than truth. One was |
739 | discussed, and a patch submitted, but the objections were many. While | |
740 | there were objections, many still feel the need. At least it was | |
741 | decided that C<??> is the best name for the operator. | |
e50bb9a1 GS |
742 | |
743 | =head2 "dynamic" lexicals | |
744 | ||
745 | my $x; | |
746 | sub foo { | |
747 | local $x; | |
748 | } | |
749 | ||
750 | Localizing, as Tim Bunce points out, is a separate concept from | |
751 | whether the variable is global or lexical. Chip Salzenberg had | |
752 | an implementation once, but Larry thought it had potential to | |
753 | confuse. | |
754 | ||
755 | =head2 "class"-based, rather than package-based "lexicals" | |
756 | ||
757 | This is like what the Alias module provides, but the variables would | |
758 | be lexicals reserved by perl at compile-time, which really are indices | |
759 | pointing into the pseudo-hash object visible inside every method so | |
760 | declared. | |
761 | ||
762 | =head1 Threading | |
763 | ||
764 | =head2 Modules | |
765 | ||
766 | Which of the standard modules are thread-safe? Which CPAN modules? | |
767 | How easy is it to fix those non-safe modules? | |
768 | ||
769 | =head2 Testing | |
770 | ||
771 | Threading is still experimental. Every reproducible bug identifies | |
772 | something else for us to fix. Find and submit more of these problems. | |
773 | ||
774 | =head2 $AUTOLOAD | |
775 | ||
776 | =head2 exit/die | |
777 | ||
778 | Consistent semantics for exit/die in threads. | |
779 | ||
780 | =head2 External threads | |
781 | ||
782 | Better support for externally created threads. | |
783 | ||
784 | =head2 Thread::Pool | |
785 | ||
786 | =head2 thread-safety | |
787 | ||
788 | Spot-check globals like statcache and global GVs for thread-safety. | |
789 | "B<Part done>", says Sarathy. | |
790 | ||
791 | =head2 Per-thread GVs | |
792 | ||
793 | According to Sarathy, this would make @_ be the same in threaded | |
794 | and non-threaded, as well as helping solve problems like filehandles | |
795 | (the same filehandle currently cannot be used in two threads). | |
796 | ||
797 | =head1 Compiler | |
798 | ||
799 | =head2 Optimization | |
800 | ||
801 | The compiler's back-end code-generators for creating bytecode or | |
802 | compilable C code could use optimization work. | |
803 | ||
804 | =head2 Byteperl | |
805 | ||
806 | Figure out how and where byteperl will be built for the various | |
807 | platforms. | |
808 | ||
809 | =head2 Precompiled modules | |
810 | ||
811 | Save byte-compiled modules on disk. | |
812 | ||
813 | =head2 Executables | |
814 | ||
815 | Auto-produce executable. | |
816 | ||
817 | =head2 Typed lexicals | |
818 | ||
819 | Typed lexicals should affect B::CC::load_pad. | |
820 | ||
821 | =head2 Win32 | |
822 | ||
823 | Workarounds to help Win32 dynamic loading. | |
824 | ||
e50bb9a1 GS |
825 | =head2 END blocks |
826 | ||
827 | END blocks need saving in compiled output. | |
828 | ||
829 | =head2 _AUTOLOAD | |
830 | ||
831 | _AUTOLOAD prodding. | |
832 | ||
833 | =head2 comppadlist | |
834 | ||
835 | Fix comppadlist (names in comppad_name can have fake SvCUR | |
836 | from where newASSIGNOP steals the field). | |
837 | ||
838 | =head2 Cached compilation | |
839 | ||
840 | Can we install modules as bytecode? | |
841 | ||
04c70446 GS |
842 | =head1 Recently Finished Tasks |
843 | ||
2b92dfce GS |
844 | =head2 Figure a way out of $^(capital letter) |
845 | ||
846 | Figure out a clean way to extend $^(capital letter) beyond | |
847 | the 26 alphabets. (${^WORD} maybe?) | |
848 | ||
849 | Mark-Jason Dominus sent a patch which went into 5.005_56. | |
850 | ||
04c70446 GS |
851 | =head2 Filenames |
852 | ||
853 | Make filenames in the distribution and in the standard module set | |
854 | be 8.3 friendly where feasible. Good luck changing the standard | |
855 | modules, though. B<Done>. | |
856 | ||
857 | =head2 Proper tied array support | |
858 | ||
859 | This was B<done> in 5.005 by Nick Ing-Simmons. | |
860 | ||
861 | =head2 Foreign lines | |
862 | ||
863 | Perl should be more generous in accepting foreign line terminations. | |
864 | Mostly B<done> in 5.005. | |
865 | ||
866 | =head2 Namespace cleanup | |
867 | ||
868 | symbol-space: "pl_" prefix for all global vars | |
869 | "Perl_" prefix for all functions | |
870 | ||
871 | CPP-space: stop malloc()/free() pollution unless asked | |
872 | ||
873 | =head2 Explain tool | |
874 | ||
875 | Given a piece of Perl code, say what it does. B::Deparse is doing | |
876 | this. B<Done>. | |
877 | ||
878 | =head2 ISA.pm | |
879 | ||
880 | Rename and alter ISA.pm. B<Done>. It is now base.pm. | |
881 | ||
882 | =head2 Automate maintenance of most PERL_OBJECT code | |
883 | ||
884 | B<Done>, says Sarathy. | |
885 | ||
886 | =head2 -iprefix. | |
887 | ||
888 | Added in 5.004_70. B<Done> | |
889 | ||
890 | =head2 gettimeofday | |
891 | ||
892 | See Time::HiRes. | |
893 | ||
894 | =head2 reference to compiled regexp | |
895 | ||
896 | B<done> This is the qr// support in 5.005. | |
897 | ||
898 | =head2 eval qw() at compile time | |
899 | ||
900 | qw() is presently compiled as a call to split. This means the split | |
901 | happens at runtime. Change this so qw() is compiled as a real list | |
902 | assignment. This also avoids surprises like: | |
903 | ||
904 | $a = () = qw(What will $a hold?); | |
905 | ||
906 | B<Done>. Tom Hughes submitted a patch that went into 5.005_55. | |
907 | ||
908 | =head2 autocroak? | |
909 | ||
910 | B<Done>. This is the Fatal.pm module, so any builtin that that does | |
911 | not return success automatically die()s. If you're feeling brave, tie | |
912 | this in with the unified exceptions scheme. | |
913 | ||
914 | =head2 Status variable | |
915 | ||
916 | $^C to track compiler/checker status. B<Done> in 5.005_54. | |
917 | ||
e50bb9a1 | 918 | =cut |