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1 | =head1 Perl TO-DO List |
2 | ||
3 | This is a list of wishes for Perl. It is maintained by Nathan | |
4 | Torkington for the Perl porters. Send updates to | |
5 | I<perl5-porters@perl.org>. If you want to work on any of these | |
6 | projects, be sure to check the perl5-porters archives for past ideas, | |
7 | flames, and propaganda. This will save you time and also prevent you | |
8 | from implementing something that Larry has already vetoed. One set | |
9 | of archives may be found at: | |
10 | ||
11 | http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/ | |
12 | ||
13 | ||
14 | =head1 Infrastructure | |
15 | ||
16 | =head2 Mailing list archives | |
17 | ||
18 | Chaim suggests contacting egroup and asking them to archive the other | |
19 | perl.org mailing lists. Probably not advocacy, but definitely | |
20 | perl6-porters, etc. | |
21 | ||
22 | =head2 Bug tracking system | |
23 | ||
24 | Richard Foley I<richard@perl.org> is writing one. We looked at | |
25 | several, like gnats and the Debian system, but at the time we | |
26 | investigated them, none met our needs. Since then, Jitterbug has | |
27 | matured, and may be worth reinvestigation. | |
28 | ||
29 | The system we've developed will eventually be recipient of perlbug | |
30 | mail. New bugs are entered into a mysql database, and sent on to | |
31 | perl5-porters with the subject line rewritten to include a "ticket | |
32 | number" (unique ID for the new bug). If the incoming message already | |
33 | had a ticket number in the subject line, then the message is logged | |
34 | against that bug. There is a separate email interface (not forwarding | |
35 | to p5p) that permits porters to claim, categorize, and close tickets. | |
36 | ||
37 | The next desire is a web interface. It is hoped that code can be | |
38 | reused between the mail and the web interfaces. | |
39 | ||
40 | The current delay in implementation is caused by perl.org lockups. | |
41 | One suspect is the mail handling system, possibly going into loops. | |
42 | ||
43 | We're probably going to need a bugmaster, someone who will look at | |
44 | every new "bug" and kill those that we already know about, those | |
45 | that are not bugs at all, etc. | |
46 | ||
47 | =head2 Regression Tests | |
48 | ||
49 | The test suite for Perl serves two needs: ensuring features work, and | |
50 | ensuring old bugs have not been reintroduced. Both need work. | |
51 | ||
52 | Brent LaVelle (lavelle@metronet.com) has stepped forward to work on | |
53 | performance tests and improving the size of the test suite. | |
54 | ||
55 | =over 4 | |
56 | ||
57 | =item Coverage | |
58 | ||
59 | Do the tests that come with Perl exercise every line (or every block, | |
60 | or ...) of the Perl interpreter, and if not then how can we make them | |
61 | do so? | |
62 | ||
63 | =item Regression | |
64 | ||
65 | No bug fixes should be made without a corresponding testsuite addition. | |
66 | This needs a dedicated enforcer, as the current pumpking is either too | |
67 | lazy or too stupid or both and lets enforcement wander all over the | |
68 | map. :-) | |
69 | ||
70 | =item __DIE__ | |
71 | ||
72 | Tests that fail need to be of a form that can be readily mailed | |
73 | to perlbug and diagnosed with minimal back-and-forth's to determine | |
74 | which test failed, due to what cause, etc. | |
75 | ||
76 | =item suidperl | |
77 | ||
78 | We need regression/sanity tests for suidperl | |
79 | ||
80 | =item The 25% slowdown from perl4 to perl5 | |
81 | ||
82 | This value may or may not be accurate, but it certainly is | |
83 | eye-catching. For some things perl5 is faster than perl4, but often | |
84 | the reliability and extensability have come at a cost of speed. The | |
85 | benchmark suite that Gisle released earlier has been hailed as both a | |
86 | fantastic solution and as a source of entirely meaningless figures. | |
87 | Do we need to test "real applications"? Can you do so? Anyone have | |
88 | machines to dedicate to the task? Identify the things that have grown | |
89 | slower, and see if there's a way to make them faster. | |
90 | ||
91 | =back | |
92 | ||
93 | =head2 Filenames | |
94 | ||
95 | Make filenames in the distribution and in the standard module set | |
96 | be 8.3 friendly where feasible. Good luck changing the standard | |
97 | modules, though. B<Done>. | |
98 | ||
99 | =head1 Configure | |
100 | ||
101 | Andy Dougherty maintain(ed|s) a list of "todo" items for the configure | |
102 | that comes with Perl. See Porting/pumpkin.pod in the latest | |
103 | source release. | |
104 | ||
105 | =head2 Install HTML | |
106 | ||
107 | Have "make install" give you the option to install HTML as well. This | |
108 | would be part of Configure. Andy Wardley (certified Perl studmuffin) | |
109 | will look into the current problems of HTML installation--is | |
110 | 'installhtml' preventing this from happening cleanly, or is pod2html | |
111 | the problem? If the latter, Brad Appleton's pod work may fix the | |
112 | problem for free. | |
113 | ||
114 | =head1 Perl Language | |
115 | ||
116 | =head2 our ($var) | |
117 | ||
118 | Declare global variables (lexically or otherwise). | |
119 | ||
120 | =head2 64-bit Perl | |
121 | ||
122 | Verify complete 64 bit support so that the value of sysseek, or C<-s>, or | |
123 | stat(), or tell can fit into a perl number without losing precision. | |
124 | Work with the perl-64bit mailing list on perl.org. | |
125 | ||
126 | =head2 Figure a way out of $^(capital letter) | |
127 | ||
128 | Figure out a clean way to extend $^(capital letter) beyond | |
129 | the 26 alphabets. (${^WORD} maybe?) | |
130 | ||
131 | =head2 Prototypes | |
132 | ||
133 | =over 4 | |
134 | ||
135 | =item Named prototypes | |
136 | ||
137 | Add proper named prototypes that actually work usefully. | |
138 | ||
139 | =item Indirect objects | |
140 | ||
141 | Fix prototype bug that forgets indirect objects. | |
142 | ||
143 | =item Method calls | |
144 | ||
145 | Prototypes for method calls. | |
146 | ||
147 | =item Context | |
148 | ||
149 | Return context prototype declarations. | |
150 | ||
151 | =item Scoped subs | |
152 | ||
153 | lexically-scoped subs, e.g. my sub | |
154 | ||
155 | =back | |
156 | ||
157 | =head2 Built-in globbing | |
158 | ||
159 | Currently the C<E<lt>*.cE<gt>> syntax calls the c shell. This causes | |
160 | problems on sites without csh, systems where fork() is expensive, and | |
161 | setuid environments. Decide between Glob::BSD and File::KGlob, move | |
162 | it into the core, and make Perl use it for globbing. Ben Holzman and | |
163 | Tye McQueen have claimed the pumpkin for this. | |
164 | ||
165 | =head2 Proper tied array support | |
166 | ||
167 | This was B<done> in 5.005 by Nick Ing-Simmons. | |
168 | ||
169 | =head1 Perl Internals | |
170 | ||
171 | =head2 magic_setisa | |
172 | ||
173 | C<magic_setisa> should be made to update %FIELDS [???] | |
174 | ||
175 | =head2 Foreign lines | |
176 | ||
177 | Perl should be more generous in accepting foreign line terminations. | |
178 | Mostly B<done> in 5.005. | |
179 | ||
180 | =head2 Garbage Collection | |
181 | ||
182 | There was talk of a mark-and-sweep garbage collector at TPC2, but the | |
183 | (to users) unpredictable nature of its behaviour put some off. | |
184 | Sarathy, I believe, did the work. Here's what he has to say: | |
185 | ||
186 | Yeah, I hope to implement it someday too. The points that were | |
187 | raised in TPC2 were all to do with calling DESTROY() methods, but | |
188 | I think we can accomodate that by extending bless() to stash | |
189 | extra information for objects so we track their lifetime accurately | |
190 | for those that want their DESTROY() to be predictable (this will be | |
191 | a speed hit, naturally, and will therefore be optional, naturally. :) | |
192 | ||
193 | [N.B. Don't even ask me about this now! When I have the time to | |
194 | write a cogent summary, I'll post it.] | |
195 | ||
196 | =head2 Reliable signals | |
197 | ||
198 | Sarathy and Dan Sugalski are working on this. Chip posted a patch | |
199 | earlier, but it was not accepted into 5.005. The issue is tricky, | |
200 | because it has the potential to greatly slow down the core. | |
201 | ||
202 | There are at least three things to consider: | |
203 | ||
204 | =over 4 | |
205 | ||
206 | =item Alternate runops() for signal despatch | |
207 | ||
208 | Sarathy and Dan are discussed this on perl5-porters. | |
209 | ||
210 | =item Figure out how to die() in delayed sighandler | |
211 | ||
212 | =item Add tests for Thread::Signal | |
213 | ||
214 | =item Automatic tests against CPAN | |
215 | ||
216 | Is there some way to automatically build all/most of CPAN with | |
217 | the new Perl and check that the modules there pass all the tests? | |
218 | ||
219 | =back | |
220 | ||
221 | =head2 Interpolated regex performance bugs | |
222 | ||
223 | while (<>) { | |
224 | $found = 0; | |
225 | foreach $pat (@patterns) { | |
226 | $found++ if /$pat/o; | |
227 | } | |
228 | print if $found; | |
229 | } | |
230 | ||
231 | The qr// syntax added in 5.005 has solved this problem, but | |
232 | it needs more thorough documentation. | |
233 | ||
234 | =head2 Memory leaks from failed eval/regcomp | |
235 | ||
236 | The only known memory leaks in Perl are in failed code or regexp | |
237 | compilation. Fix this. Hugo Van Der Sanden will attempt this but | |
238 | won't have tuits until January 1999. | |
239 | ||
240 | =head2 Make XS easier to use | |
241 | ||
242 | There was interest in SWIG from porters, but nothing has happened | |
243 | lately. | |
244 | ||
245 | =head2 Make embedded Perl easier to use | |
246 | ||
247 | This is probably difficult for the same reasons that "XS For Dummies" | |
248 | will be difficult. | |
249 | ||
250 | =head2 Namespace cleanup | |
251 | ||
252 | symbol-space: "pl_" prefix for all global vars | |
253 | "Perl_" prefix for all functions | |
254 | ||
255 | B<Done>. | |
256 | ||
257 | CPP-space: restrict what we export from headers | |
258 | stop malloc()/free() pollution unless asked | |
259 | header-space: move into CORE/perl/ | |
260 | API-space: begin list of things that constitute public api | |
261 | ||
262 | =head2 MULTIPLICITY | |
263 | ||
264 | Complete work on safe recursive interpreters C<Perl-E<gt>new()>. | |
265 | Sarathy says that a reference implementation exists. | |
266 | ||
267 | =head2 MacPerl | |
268 | ||
269 | Chris Nandor and Matthias Neeracher are working on better integrating | |
270 | MacPerl into the Perl distribution. | |
271 | ||
272 | =head1 Documentation | |
273 | ||
274 | There's a lot of documentation that comes with Perl. The quantity of | |
275 | documentation makes it difficult for users to know which section of | |
276 | which manpage to read in order to solve their problem. Tom | |
277 | Christiansen has done much of the documentation work in the past. | |
278 | ||
279 | =head2 A clear division into tutorial and reference | |
280 | ||
281 | Some manpages (e.g., perltoot and perlreftut) clearly set out to | |
282 | educate the reader about a subject. Other manpages (e.g., perlsub) | |
283 | are references for which there is no tutorial, or are references with | |
284 | a slight tutorial bent. If things are either tutorial or reference, | |
285 | then the reader knows which manpage to read to learn about a subject, | |
286 | and which manpage to read to learn all about an aspect of that | |
287 | subject. Part of the solution to this is: | |
288 | ||
289 | =head2 Remove the artificial distinction between operators and functions | |
290 | ||
291 | History shows us that users, and often porters, aren't clear on the | |
292 | operator-function distinction. The present split in reference | |
293 | material between perlfunc and perlop hinders user navigation. Given | |
294 | that perlfunc is by far the larger of the two, move operator reference | |
295 | into perlfunc. | |
296 | ||
297 | =head2 More tutorials | |
298 | ||
299 | More documents of a tutorial nature could help. Here are some | |
300 | candidates: | |
301 | ||
302 | =over 4 | |
303 | ||
304 | =item Regular expressions | |
305 | ||
306 | Robin Berjon (r.berjon@ltconsulting.net) has volunteered. | |
307 | ||
308 | =item I/O | |
309 | ||
310 | Mark-Jason Dominus (mjd@plover.com) has an outline for perliotut. | |
311 | ||
312 | =item pack/unpack | |
313 | ||
314 | This is badly needed. There has been some discussion on the | |
315 | subject on perl5-porters. | |
316 | ||
317 | =item Debugging | |
318 | ||
319 | Ronald Kimball (rjk@linguist.dartmouth.edu) has volunteered. | |
320 | ||
321 | =head2 Include a search tool | |
322 | ||
323 | perldoc should be able to 'grep' fulltext indices of installed POD | |
324 | files. This would let people say: | |
325 | ||
326 | perldoc -find printing numbers with commas | |
327 | ||
328 | and get back the perlfaq entry on 'commify'. | |
329 | ||
330 | This solution, however, requires documentation to contain the keywords | |
331 | the user is searching for. Even when the users know what they're | |
332 | looking for, often they can't spell it. | |
333 | ||
334 | =head2 Include a locate tool | |
335 | ||
336 | perldoc should be able to help people find the manpages on a | |
337 | particular high-level subject: | |
338 | ||
339 | perldoc -find web | |
340 | ||
341 | would tell them manpages, web pages, and books with material on web | |
342 | programming. Similarly C<perldoc -find databases>, C<perldoc -find | |
343 | references> and so on. | |
344 | ||
345 | We need something in the vicinity of: | |
346 | ||
347 | % perl -help random stuff | |
348 | No documentation for perl function `random stuff' found | |
349 | The following entry in perlfunc.pod matches /random/a: | |
350 | =item rand EXPR | |
351 | ||
352 | =item rand | |
353 | ||
354 | Returns a random fractional number greater than or equal to C<0> and less | |
355 | than the value of EXPR. (EXPR should be positive.) If EXPR is | |
356 | omitted, the value C<1> is used. Automatically calls C<srand()> unless | |
357 | C<srand()> has already been called. See also C<srand()>. | |
358 | ||
359 | (Note: If your rand function consistently returns numbers that are too | |
360 | large or too small, then your version of Perl was probably compiled | |
361 | with the wrong number of RANDBITS.) | |
362 | The following pod pages seem to have /stuff/a: | |
363 | perlfunc.pod (7 hits) | |
364 | perlfaq7.pod (6 hits) | |
365 | perlmod.pod (4 hits) | |
366 | perlsyn.pod (3 hits) | |
367 | perlfaq8.pod (2 hits) | |
368 | perlipc.pod (2 hits) | |
369 | perl5004delta.pod (1 hit) | |
370 | perl5005delta.pod (1 hit) | |
371 | perlcall.pod (1 hit) | |
372 | perldelta.pod (1 hit) | |
373 | perlfaq3.pod (1 hit) | |
374 | perlfaq5.pod (1 hit) | |
375 | perlhist.pod (1 hit) | |
376 | perlref.pod (1 hit) | |
377 | perltoc.pod (1 hit) | |
378 | perltrap.pod (1 hit) | |
379 | Proceed to open perlfunc.pod? [y] n | |
380 | Do you want to speak perl interactively? [y] n | |
381 | Should I dial 911? [y] n | |
382 | Do you need psychiatric help? [y] y | |
383 | <PELIZA> Hi, what bothers you today? | |
384 | A Python programmer in the next cubby is driving me nuts! | |
385 | <PELIZA> Hmm, thats fixable. Just [rest censored] | |
386 | ||
387 | =head2 Separate function manpages by default | |
388 | ||
389 | Perl should install 'manpages' for every function/operator into the | |
390 | 3pl or 3p manual section. By default. The splitman program in the | |
391 | Perl source distribution does the work of turning big perlfunc into | |
392 | little 3p pages. | |
393 | ||
394 | =head2 Users can't find the manpages | |
395 | ||
396 | Make C<perldoc> tell users what they need to add to their .login or | |
397 | .cshrc to set their MANPATH correctly. | |
398 | ||
399 | =head2 Install ALL Documentation | |
400 | ||
401 | Make the standard documentation kit include the VMS, OS/2, Win32, | |
402 | Threads, etc information. | |
403 | ||
404 | =head2 Outstanding issues to be documented | |
405 | ||
406 | Tom has a list of 5.005_5* features or changes that require | |
407 | documentation. | |
408 | ||
409 | Create one document that coherently explains the delta between the | |
410 | last camel release and the current release. perldelta was supposed | |
411 | to be that, but no longer. The things in perldelta never seemed to | |
412 | get placed in the right places in the real manpages, either. This | |
413 | needs work. | |
414 | ||
415 | =head2 Replace man with a perl program | |
416 | ||
417 | Can we reimplement man in Perl? Tom has a start. I believe some of | |
418 | the Linux systems distribute a manalike. Alternatively, build on | |
419 | perldoc to remove the unfeatures like "is slow" and "has no apropos". | |
420 | ||
421 | =head2 Unicode tutorial | |
422 | ||
423 | We could use more work on helping people understand Perl's new | |
424 | Unicode support that Larry has created. | |
425 | ||
426 | =head2 Explain tool | |
427 | ||
428 | Given a piece of Perl code, say what it does. B::Deparse is doing | |
429 | this. B<Done>. | |
430 | ||
431 | =head1 Modules | |
432 | ||
433 | =head2 Update the POSIX extension to conform with the POSIX 1003.1 Edition 2 | |
434 | ||
435 | The current state of the POSIX extension is as of Edition 1, 1991, | |
436 | whereas the Edition 2 came out in 1996. ISO/IEC 9945:1-1996(E), | |
437 | ANSI/IEEE Std 1003.1, 1996 Edition. ISBN 1-55937-573-6. The updates | |
438 | were legion: threads, IPC, and real time extensions. | |
439 | ||
440 | =head2 Module versions | |
441 | ||
442 | Automate the checking of versions in the standard distribution so | |
443 | it's easy for a pumpking to check whether CPAN has a newer version | |
444 | that we should be including? | |
445 | ||
446 | =head2 New modules | |
447 | ||
448 | Which modules should be added to the standard distribution? This ties | |
449 | in with the SDK discussed on the perl-sdk list at perl.org. | |
450 | ||
451 | =head2 ISA.pm | |
452 | ||
453 | Rename and alter ISA.pm. B<Done>. It is now base.pm. | |
454 | ||
455 | =head2 Profiler | |
456 | ||
457 | Make the profiler (Devel::DProf) part of the standard release, and | |
458 | document it well. | |
459 | ||
460 | =head2 Tie Modules | |
461 | ||
462 | =over 4 | |
463 | ||
464 | =item VecArray | |
465 | ||
466 | Implement array using vec(). Nathan Torkington has working code to | |
467 | do this. | |
468 | ||
469 | =item SubstrArray | |
470 | ||
471 | Implement array using substr() | |
472 | ||
473 | =item VirtualArray | |
474 | ||
475 | Implement array using a file | |
476 | ||
477 | =item ShiftSplice | |
478 | ||
479 | Defines shift et al in terms of splice method | |
480 | ||
481 | =back | |
482 | ||
483 | =head2 Exceptions | |
484 | ||
485 | Figure out a coherent exception model, and implement it. Graham's | |
486 | Error.pm is an OO module that (I believe) requires core support. | |
487 | Are objects the right basis for this? Can it be done using the same | |
488 | text that the rest of Perl works on? The builtins will need to agree | |
489 | on a system. | |
490 | ||
491 | =head2 Procedural options | |
492 | ||
493 | Support procedural interfaces for the common cases of Perl's | |
494 | gratuitously OOO modules. Tom objects to "use IO::File" reading many | |
495 | thousands of lines of code. | |
496 | ||
497 | =head2 RPC | |
498 | ||
499 | Write a module for transparent, portable remote procedure calls. (Not | |
500 | core). This touches on the CORBA and ILU work. | |
501 | ||
502 | =head2 y2k localtime/gmtime | |
503 | ||
504 | Write a module, Y2k::Catch, which overloads localtime and gmtime's | |
505 | returned year value and catches "bad" attempts to use it. | |
506 | ||
507 | =head2 Export File::Find variables | |
508 | ||
509 | Make File::Find export C<$name> etc manually, at least if asked to. | |
510 | ||
511 | =head2 Ioctl | |
512 | ||
513 | Finish a proper Ioctl module. | |
514 | ||
515 | =head2 Debugger attach/detach | |
516 | ||
517 | Permit a user to debug an already-running program. | |
518 | ||
519 | =head2 Regular Expression debugger | |
520 | ||
521 | Create a visual profiler/debugger tool that stepped you through the | |
522 | execution of a regular expression point by point. Ilya has a module | |
523 | to color-code and display regular expression parses and executions. | |
524 | There's something at http://tkworld.org/ that might be a good start, | |
525 | it's a Tk/Tcl RE wizard, that builds regexen of many flavours. | |
526 | ||
527 | =head2 Alternative RE Syntax | |
528 | ||
529 | Make an alternative regular expression syntax that is accessed through | |
530 | a module. For instance, | |
531 | ||
532 | use RE; | |
533 | $re = start_of_line() | |
534 | ->literal("1998/10/08") | |
535 | ->optional( whitespace() ) | |
536 | ->literal("[") | |
537 | ->remember( many( or( "-", digit() ) ) ); | |
538 | ||
539 | if (/$re/) { | |
540 | print "time is $1\n"; | |
541 | } | |
542 | ||
543 | Newbies to regular expressions typically only use a subset of the full | |
544 | language. Perhaps you wouldn't have to implement the full feature set. | |
545 | ||
546 | =head2 Bundled modules | |
547 | ||
548 | Nicholas Clark (nick@flirble.org) had a patch for storing modules in | |
549 | zipped format. This needs exploring and concluding. | |
550 | ||
551 | =head2 Expect | |
552 | ||
553 | Adopt IO::Tty, make it as portable as Don Libes' "expect" (can we link | |
554 | against expect code?), and perfect a Perl version of expect. IO::Tty | |
555 | and expect could then be distributed as part of the core distribution, | |
556 | replacing Comm.pl and other hacks. | |
557 | ||
558 | =head2 GUI::Native | |
559 | ||
560 | A simple-to-use interface to native graphical abilities would | |
561 | be welcomed. Oh, Perl's access Tk is nice enough, and reasonably | |
562 | portable, but it's not particularly as fast as one would like. | |
563 | Simple access to the mouse's cut buffer or mouse-presses shouldn't | |
564 | required loading a few terabytes of Tk code. | |
565 | ||
566 | =head2 Update semibroken auxiliary tools; h2ph, a2p, etc. | |
567 | ||
568 | Kurt Starsinic is working on h2ph. mjd has fixed bugs in a2p in the | |
569 | past. a2p apparently doesn't work on nawk and gawk extensions. | |
570 | Graham Barr has an Include module that does h2ph work at runtime. | |
571 | ||
572 | =head2 POD Converters | |
573 | ||
574 | Brad's PodParser code needs to become part of the core, and the Pod::* | |
575 | and pod2* programs rewritten to use this standard parser. Currently | |
576 | the converters take different options, some behave in different | |
577 | fashions, and some are more picky than others in terms of the POD | |
578 | files they accept. | |
579 | ||
580 | =head2 pod2html | |
581 | ||
582 | A short-term fix: pod2html generates absolute HTML links. Make it | |
583 | generate relative links. | |
584 | ||
585 | =head2 Podchecker | |
586 | ||
587 | Something like lint for Pod would be good. Something that catches | |
588 | common errors as well as gross ones. Brad Appleton is putting | |
589 | together something as part of his PodParser work. | |
590 | ||
591 | =head1 Tom's Wishes | |
592 | ||
593 | =head2 Webperl | |
594 | ||
595 | Design a webperl environment that's as tightly integrated and as | |
596 | easy-to-use as Perl's current command-line environment. | |
597 | ||
598 | =head2 Mobile agents | |
599 | ||
600 | More work on a safe and secure execution environment for mobile | |
601 | agents would be neat; the Safe.pm module is a start, but there's a | |
602 | still a lot to be done in that area. Adopt Penguin? | |
603 | ||
604 | =head2 POSIX on non-POSIX | |
605 | ||
606 | Standard programming constructs for non-POSIX systems would help a | |
607 | lot of programmers stuck on primitive, legacy systems. For example, | |
608 | Microsoft still hasn't made a usable POSIX interface on their clunky | |
609 | systems, which means that standard operations such as alarm() and | |
610 | fork(), both critical for sophisticated client-server programming, | |
611 | must both be kludged around. | |
612 | ||
613 | I'm unsure whether Tom means to emulate alarm( )and fork(), or merely | |
614 | to provide a document like perlport.pod to say which features are | |
615 | portable and which are not. | |
616 | ||
617 | =head2 Portable installations | |
618 | ||
619 | Figure out a portable semi-gelled installation, that is, one without | |
620 | full paths. Larry has said that he's thinking about this. Ilya | |
621 | pointed out that perllib_mangle() is good for this. | |
622 | ||
623 | =head1 Win32 Stuff | |
624 | ||
625 | =head2 Automate maintenance of most PERL_OBJECT code | |
626 | ||
627 | B<Done>, says Sarathy. | |
628 | ||
629 | =head2 Get PERL_OBJECT building under gcc | |
630 | ||
631 | B<Part done>, according to Sarathy. It builds under egcs on win32, | |
632 | but doesn't run for occult reasons. If anyone knows the right | |
633 | breed of chicken to sacrifice, please speak up. | |
634 | ||
635 | =head2 Rename new headers to be consistent with the rest | |
636 | ||
637 | =head2 Sort out the spawnvp() mess | |
638 | ||
639 | =head2 Work out DLL versioning | |
640 | ||
641 | =head2 Get PERL_OBJECT building on non-win32 | |
642 | ||
643 | =head2 Style-check | |
644 | ||
645 | =head1 Would be nice to have | |
646 | ||
647 | =over 4 | |
648 | ||
649 | =item C<pack "(stuff)*"> | |
650 | ||
651 | =item Contiguous bitfields in pack/unpack | |
652 | ||
653 | =item lexperl | |
654 | ||
655 | =item Bundled perl preprocessor | |
656 | ||
657 | =item Use posix calls internally where possible | |
658 | ||
659 | =item gettimeofday | |
660 | ||
661 | Joshua Pritikin sent patches to p5p in early December 1998. | |
662 | ||
663 | =item format BOTTOM | |
664 | ||
665 | =item -iprefix. | |
666 | ||
667 | Added in 5.004_70. B<Done> | |
668 | ||
669 | =item -i rename file only when successfully changed | |
670 | ||
671 | =item All ARGV input should act like <> | |
672 | ||
673 | =item report HANDLE [formats]. | |
674 | ||
675 | =item support in perlmain to rerun debugger | |
676 | ||
677 | =item reference to compiled regexp | |
678 | ||
679 | B<done> This is the qr// support in 5.005. | |
680 | ||
681 | =item lvalue functions | |
682 | ||
683 | Tuomas Lukka, on behalf of the PDL project, greatly desires this and | |
684 | Ilya has a patch for it (probably against an older version of Perl). | |
685 | Tuomas points out that what PDL really wants is lvalue I<methods>, | |
686 | not just subs. | |
687 | ||
688 | =back | |
689 | ||
690 | =head1 Possible pragmas | |
691 | ||
692 | =head2 'less' | |
693 | ||
694 | (use less memory, CPU) | |
695 | ||
696 | =head1 Optimizations | |
697 | ||
698 | =head2 constant function cache | |
699 | ||
700 | =head2 eval qw() at compile time | |
701 | ||
702 | qw() is presently compiled as a call to split. This means the split | |
703 | happens at runtime. Change this so qw() is compiled as a real list | |
704 | assignment. This also avoids surprises like: | |
705 | ||
706 | $a = () = qw(What will $a hold?); | |
707 | ||
708 | B<Done>. Tom Hughes submitted a patch that went into 5.005_55. | |
709 | ||
710 | =head2 foreach(reverse...) | |
711 | ||
712 | =head2 Cache eval tree | |
713 | ||
714 | Unless lexical outer scope used (mark in &compiling?). | |
715 | ||
716 | =head2 rcatmaybe | |
717 | ||
718 | =head2 Shrink opcode tables | |
719 | ||
720 | Via multiple implementations selected in peep. | |
721 | ||
722 | =head2 Cache hash value | |
723 | ||
724 | Not a win, according to Guido. | |
725 | ||
726 | =head2 Optimize away @_ where possible | |
727 | ||
728 | =head2 Optimize sort by { $a <=> $b } | |
729 | ||
730 | Greg Bacon added several more sort optimizations. These have | |
731 | made it into 5.005_55, thanks to Hans Mulder. | |
732 | ||
733 | =head2 Rewrite regexp parser for better integrated optimization | |
734 | ||
735 | The regexp parser was rewritten for 5.005. Ilya's the regexp guru. | |
736 | ||
737 | =head1 Vague possibilities | |
738 | ||
739 | =over 4 | |
740 | ||
741 | =item ref function in list context | |
742 | ||
743 | This seems impossible to do without substantially breaking code. | |
744 | ||
745 | =item make tr/// return histogram in list context? | |
746 | ||
747 | =item Loop control on do{} et al | |
748 | ||
749 | =item Explicit switch statements | |
750 | ||
751 | Nobody has yet managed to come up with a switch syntax that would | |
752 | allow for mixed hash, constant, regexp checks. Submit implementation | |
753 | with syntax, please. | |
754 | ||
755 | =item compile to real threaded code | |
756 | ||
757 | =item structured types | |
758 | ||
759 | =item autocroak? | |
760 | ||
761 | B<Done>. This is the Fatal.pm module, so any builtin that that does | |
762 | not return success automatically die()s. If you're feeling brave, tie | |
763 | this in with the unified exceptions scheme. | |
764 | ||
765 | =item Modifiable $1 et al | |
766 | ||
767 | The intent is for this to be a means of editing the matched portions of | |
768 | the target string. | |
769 | ||
770 | =back | |
771 | ||
772 | =head1 To Do Or Not To Do | |
773 | ||
774 | These are things that have been discussed in the past and roundly | |
775 | criticized for being of questionable value. | |
776 | ||
777 | =head2 Making my() work on "package" variables | |
778 | ||
779 | Being able to say my($Foo::Bar), something that sounds ludicrous and | |
780 | the 5.006 pumpking has mocked. | |
781 | ||
782 | =head2 "or" testing defined not truth | |
783 | ||
784 | We tell people that C<||> can be used to give a default value to a | |
785 | variable: | |
786 | ||
787 | $children = shift || 5; # default is 5 children | |
788 | ||
789 | which is almost (but not): | |
790 | ||
791 | $children = shift; | |
792 | $children = 5 unless $children; | |
793 | ||
794 | but if the first argument was given and is "0", then it will be | |
795 | considered false by C<||> and C<5> used instead. Really we want | |
796 | an C<||>-like construct that behaves like: | |
797 | ||
798 | $children = shift; | |
799 | $children = 5 unless defined $children; | |
800 | ||
801 | Namely, a C<||> that tests defined-ness rather than truth. One | |
802 | was discussed, and a patch submitted, but the objections were many: | |
803 | ||
804 | =over 4 | |
805 | ||
806 | =item Punctuation | |
807 | ||
808 | We're running out of punctuation. C<|||>, the suggested operator, is | |
809 | very very verbose. | |
810 | ||
811 | =item Orthogonality | |
812 | ||
813 | To work like the other logical operators, there'd need to be C<|||=> | |
814 | and "English" equivalents (as there is "or" for "||"). We couldn't | |
815 | settle on an equivalent we liked. Does there also have to be an "&&" | |
816 | that tests truth? | |
817 | ||
818 | =back | |
819 | ||
820 | While there were objections, many still feel the need. | |
821 | ||
822 | =head2 "dynamic" lexicals | |
823 | ||
824 | my $x; | |
825 | sub foo { | |
826 | local $x; | |
827 | } | |
828 | ||
829 | Localizing, as Tim Bunce points out, is a separate concept from | |
830 | whether the variable is global or lexical. Chip Salzenberg had | |
831 | an implementation once, but Larry thought it had potential to | |
832 | confuse. | |
833 | ||
834 | =head2 "class"-based, rather than package-based "lexicals" | |
835 | ||
836 | This is like what the Alias module provides, but the variables would | |
837 | be lexicals reserved by perl at compile-time, which really are indices | |
838 | pointing into the pseudo-hash object visible inside every method so | |
839 | declared. | |
840 | ||
841 | =head1 Threading | |
842 | ||
843 | =head2 Modules | |
844 | ||
845 | Which of the standard modules are thread-safe? Which CPAN modules? | |
846 | How easy is it to fix those non-safe modules? | |
847 | ||
848 | =head2 Testing | |
849 | ||
850 | Threading is still experimental. Every reproducible bug identifies | |
851 | something else for us to fix. Find and submit more of these problems. | |
852 | ||
853 | =head2 $AUTOLOAD | |
854 | ||
855 | =head2 exit/die | |
856 | ||
857 | Consistent semantics for exit/die in threads. | |
858 | ||
859 | =head2 External threads | |
860 | ||
861 | Better support for externally created threads. | |
862 | ||
863 | =head2 Thread::Pool | |
864 | ||
865 | =head2 thread-safety | |
866 | ||
867 | Spot-check globals like statcache and global GVs for thread-safety. | |
868 | "B<Part done>", says Sarathy. | |
869 | ||
870 | =head2 Per-thread GVs | |
871 | ||
872 | According to Sarathy, this would make @_ be the same in threaded | |
873 | and non-threaded, as well as helping solve problems like filehandles | |
874 | (the same filehandle currently cannot be used in two threads). | |
875 | ||
876 | =head1 Compiler | |
877 | ||
878 | =head2 Optimization | |
879 | ||
880 | The compiler's back-end code-generators for creating bytecode or | |
881 | compilable C code could use optimization work. | |
882 | ||
883 | =head2 Byteperl | |
884 | ||
885 | Figure out how and where byteperl will be built for the various | |
886 | platforms. | |
887 | ||
888 | =head2 Precompiled modules | |
889 | ||
890 | Save byte-compiled modules on disk. | |
891 | ||
892 | =head2 Executables | |
893 | ||
894 | Auto-produce executable. | |
895 | ||
896 | =head2 Typed lexicals | |
897 | ||
898 | Typed lexicals should affect B::CC::load_pad. | |
899 | ||
900 | =head2 Win32 | |
901 | ||
902 | Workarounds to help Win32 dynamic loading. | |
903 | ||
904 | =head2 Status variable | |
905 | ||
906 | $^C to track compiler/checker status. B<Done> in 5.005_54. | |
907 | ||
908 | =head2 END blocks | |
909 | ||
910 | END blocks need saving in compiled output. | |
911 | ||
912 | =head2 _AUTOLOAD | |
913 | ||
914 | _AUTOLOAD prodding. | |
915 | ||
916 | =head2 comppadlist | |
917 | ||
918 | Fix comppadlist (names in comppad_name can have fake SvCUR | |
919 | from where newASSIGNOP steals the field). | |
920 | ||
921 | =head2 Cached compilation | |
922 | ||
923 | Can we install modules as bytecode? | |
924 | ||
925 | =cut |