-Must-have external packages
- POSIX
- X/Motif/whatever
+Always check out the latest perl5-porters discussions on these subjects
+before embarking on an implementation tour.
-Bugs
- BEGIN { require 'perldb.pl' }
- Make yyparse recursion longjmp() proof.
- perl -c shell_script bug
- fix the need for double ^D on $x
- STDOUT->print("howdy\n");
+Tie Modules
+ VecArray Implement array using vec()
+ SubstrArray Implement array using substr()
+ VirtualArray Implement array using a file
+ ShiftSplice Defines shift et al in terms of splice method
-Regexp extensions
- /m for multiline
- /\Afoo/ (beginning of string, or where previous g match left off)
- /foo\Z/ (end of string only)
- negative regexp assertions?
- /<>/x for grouping?
- /f for fixed variable interpolation?
- Rewrite regexp parser for better integrated optimization
-
-Nice to have
- Profiler
- pack "(stuff)*"
+Would be nice to have
+ pack "(stuff)*", "(stuff)4", ...
+ contiguous bitfields in pack/unpack
lexperl
- Bundled perl preprocessor
- FILEHANDLE methods
+ bundled perl preprocessor
+ use posix calls internally where possible
+ gettimeofday (possibly best left for a module?)
+ format BOTTOM
+ -i rename file only when successfully changed
+ all ARGV input should act like <>
+ report HANDLE [formats].
+ support in perlmain to rerun debugger
+ regression tests using __DIE__ hook
+ lexically scoped functions: my sub foo { ... }
+ lvalue functions
+ wantlvalue? more generalized want()/caller()?
+ named prototypes: sub foo ($foo, @bar) { ... } ?
+ regression/sanity tests for suidperl
+ iterators/lazy evaluation/continuations/first/
+ first_defined/short-circuiting grep/??
+ This is a very thorny and hotly debated subject,
+ tread carefully and do your homework first
+ full 64 bit support (i.e. "long long"). Things to consider:
+ how to store/retrieve 32+ integers into/from Perl scalars?
+ 32+ constants in Perl code? (non-portable!)
+ 32+ arguments/return values to/from system calls? (seek et al)
+ 32+ bit ops (&|^~, currently explicitly disabled)
+ generalise Errno way of extracting cpp symbols and use that in
+ Errno and Fcntl (ExtUtils::CppSymbol?)
+ the _r-problem: for all the {set,get,end}*() system database
+ calls (and a couple more: readdir, *rand*, crypt, *time,
+ tmpnam) there are in many systems the _r versions
+ to be used in re-entrant (=multithreaded) code
+ Icky things: the _r API is not standardized and
+ the _r-forms require per-thread data to store their state
+ memory profiler: turn malloc.c:Perl_dump_mstats() into
+ an extension (Devel::MProf?) that would return the malloc
+ stats in a nice Perl datastructure (also a simple interface
+ to return just the grand total would be good)
+ Unicode: [=bar=], combining characters equivalence
+ (U+4001 + U+0308 should be equal to U+00C4, in other words
+ A+diaereres should equal Ä), Unicode collation
+
+Possible pragmas
+ debugger
+ optimize (use less qw[memory cpu])
Optimizations
- Make specialized allocators
- Optimize switch statements
- Optimize foreach on array
- Optimize foreach (1..1000000)
- Set KEEP on constant split
- Cache eval tree (unless lexical outer scope used (mark in &compiling?))
+ constant function cache
+ switch structures
+ foreach(reverse...)
+ optimize away constant split at compile time (a la qw[f o o])
+ cache eval tree (unless lexical outer scope used (mark in &compiling?))
rcatmaybe
- Shrink opcode tables via multiple implementations selected in peep
- Cache hash value?
- sfio?
-
-Need to think more about
- ref in list context
- When does split() go to @_?
- Figure out BEGIN { ... @ARGV ... }
- Implement eval once? (Unnecessary with cache?)
- detect inconsistent linkage when using -DDEBUGGING?
+ shrink opcode tables via multiple implementations selected in peep
+ cache hash value? (Not a win, according to Guido)
+ optimize away @_ where possible
+ "one pass" global destruction
+ rewrite regexp parser for better integrated optimization
+ LRU cache of regexp: foreach $pat (@pats) { foo() if /$pat/ }
Vague possibilities
- sub mysplice(@, $, $, ...)
- data prettyprint function? (or is it, as I suspect, a lib routine?)
- Nested destructors
+ ref function in list context?
make tr/// return histogram in list context?
- undef wantarray in void context
- goto &replacement_routine
- filehandle references
- Loop control on do{} et al
- Explicit switch statements
- perl to C translator
- multi-thread scheduling
+ loop control on do{} et al
+ explicit switch statements
built-in globbing
compile to real threaded code
structured types
+ autocroak?
+ modifiable $1 et al
https://perl5.git.perl.org / perl5.git / blobdiff