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gnu/tasks

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+GNU Task List					last updated 14 Oct 90
+
+Check with gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu, for a possibly more current copy.
+
+If you start working steadily on a project, please let gnu@prep know.
+We might have information that could help you; we'd also like to send
+you the GNU coding standards.
+
+0. Documentation
+
+We very urgently need documentation for some parts of the system
+that already exist or will exist very soon:
+
+A C reference manual.
+  (RMS has written half of one which you could start with).
+
+A manual for Ghostscript.
+
+Manuals for SH and CSH.
+
+Manuals for how to use the system calls and libraries.
+
+A DIFF manual (not as hard as the others).
+
+A LEX manual.
+
+A book on how GCC works and why various machine descriptions
+are written as they are.
+
+A manual for programming X-window applications.
+
+Manuals for various X window managers.
+
+Reference cards for various programs.
+
+Utilities needing separate documentation include diff, grep, cpio,
+less, life, nl, pr, cut and paste, script, patch, prmail, touch, file,
+find, uuencode and uudecode.
+
+1. imitations of standard parts of Unix:
+
+csplit, sdiff, mailx (System V), join
+
+Less urgent: calendar, diction, explain, plot, style.
+
+An improved version of the POSIX utility `pax'.  There is one on the
+usenet, but it is said to be poorly written.
+
+Add the System V features to Berkeley curses.
+
+Macro packages and auxiliary programs for troff.  The ones we need are
+the mm and ms macros, and the programs grap and refer.  All the rest
+is done.
+
+Add a data-base feature to `find' to make it faster.
+
+A tool to examine a C source file and produce a list of `indent'
+options which describe the style of indentation in use.
+
+Write sin, cos, exp, log, arctan and bessel functions for bc.
+Implement large radices (> 16) for bc.
+
+Cross-reference program for C programs
+ (like cxref, etc.)
+
+Various other libraries.
+
+2. Kernel projects:
+
+Whether we use TRIX or MACH, in either case a new implementation
+of TCP/IP must be written, and a new disk file system.
+(Actually, this may no longer be necessary, since BSD's TCP/IP
+may be declared free, and perhaps the file system from Sprite may
+be usable.)
+
+An over-the-ethernet debugger that will allow the kernel to be
+debugged from GDB running on another machine.
+
+A shared memory X11 server to run under MACH or TRIX is very
+desirable.  The machine specific parts should be kept well separated.
+
+3. Extensions to existing GNU software.
+
+Extend GNU Emacs to do desktop publishing.  (Talk to us about this).
+
+Extend GDB with a C interpreter so the user can change the program
+during a debugging session.  Some parts of this are being worked on.
+
+Extend GDB to handle other languages than C.
+
+Extend the linker to combine multiple appearances of the same header file,
+as Sun's linker does.
+
+Enhance GCC.  See files PROJECTS and PROBLEMS in the GCC distribution.
+
+Add a few features to GNU diff: such as handling large input files
+without reading entire files into core.
+
+An nroff macro package to replace texi2roff.
+
+Finish implementation of TECO in GNU Emacs Lisp, for short throw-away programs.
+
+Extend gprof to handle basic-block profiling, a la tcov.
+
+4. Other random projects:
+(If you think of others that should be added, please
+send them to gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu.)
+
+A program to convert Postscript to plain ASCII text.  This won't be
+too hard if you don't worry pedantically about how the output text
+should be formatted.  If you can get paragraph boundaries right,
+discard page headers and footers, and put chapter and section headings
+on separate lines, the output should be good enough.
+
+An imitation of Page Maker or Ventura Publisher.
+
+An imitation of dbase2 or dbase3 (How dbased!)
+
+Draw programs for the X window system.
+
+Font editor for the X window system (if it doesn't already have one).
+
+An X window interface for Metafont.
+
+An emulator for Macintosh graphics calls on top of X Windows.
+
+A music playing and editing system.
+
+A program to edit dance notation (such as labanotation)
+and display dancers moving on the screen.
+
+A tool for beginners to read and send mail with.
+It should not have a lot of features, but needs a very
+clean window-and-buttons user interface.
+
+A general ledger program.
+
+A program to typeset C code for printing.
+For ideas on what to do, see the forthcoming book,
+    Human Factors and Typography for More Readable Programs,
+    Ronald M. Baecker and Aaron Marcus,
+    Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-10745-7
+(I don't quite agree with a few of the details they propose.)
+
+Speech-generation programs (a project is forming for this).
+
+Speech-recognition programs (single-speaker, disconnected speech).
+
+Scientific mathematical subroutines, including clones of SPSS.
+
+Statistical tools.
+
+Software to replace card catalogues in libraries.
+
+Grammar and style checking programs.
+
+An APL system.
+
+A Common Lisp system.  (The beginnings of one may be available from MIT
+or CMU.)
+
+An implementation of the S language.
+
+A translator from Scheme to C.
+
+Optical character scanning programs; especially if suitable for scanning
+documents with multiple fonts and capturing font info as well as character
+codes.  It may not be very difficult if you let it "train" on part
+of the individual document to be scanned, so as to learn what fonts are
+in use in that document.
+
+A program to scan a line drawing and convert it to Postscript.
+
+CAD software, such as a vague imitation of Autocad.
+
+A ghostscript to fax program, so that documents can be sent to
+remote fax machines.
+
+Enhance the X back-end for ghostscript.
+
+A program to display and edit Hypercard stacks.
+
+An interface-builder program to make it easy to design graphical
+interfaces for applications.
+
+A desktop program with icons and such, for X-windows.
+
+Note that graphics programs should be written to work with the X
+window system, a free portable window system from MIT and DEC that we
+will be using as the window system for GNU.
+
+5. Compilers for other batch languages.
+
+Volunteers are needed to write parsers/front ends for languages such
+as Algol 60, Algol 68, Modula, PL/I, Ada, or whatever, to be
+used with the code generation phases of the GNU C compiler.  (C++ is
+done, and Fortran, Pascal and Modula are being worked on.)
+
+6. Games and recreations
+
+Video-oriented games should work with the X window system.
+
+Empire (there is a free version but it needs upgrading)
+Rocky's Boots
+Chipwits
+Imitations of your favorite video games:
+ Space war, Asteroids, Pong, SDI, Breakout, Lode Runner, etc.
+Compute and display Mandelbrot set and Julia sets
+Flight simulator (I have contacts to get you information
+ on the equations with which you can do accurate simulation)
+Biomorph evolution (as in Scientific American)
+A program to display effects of moving at relativistic speeds
+
+We do not need rogue, as we have hack.