etc/tasks.texi

   1 \input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
   2 @c %**start of header
   3 @setfilename tasks.info
   4 @settitle GNU Task List
   5 @c UPDATE THIS DATE WHENEVER YOU MAKE CHANGES!
   6 @set lastupdate 6 April 1995
   7 @c %**end of header
   8
   9 @setchapternewpage off
  10
  11 @titlepage
  12 @title GNU Task List
  13 @author Free Software Foundation
  14 @author last updated @value{lastupdate}
  15 @end titlepage
  16
  17 @ifinfo
  18 @node Top, Documentation, (dir), (dir)
  19 @top GNU Task List
  20
  21 This file is updated automatically from @file{tasks.texi}, which was
  22 last updated on @value{lastupdate}.
  23 @end ifinfo
  24
  25 Check with @code{gnu@@prep.ai.mit.edu}, for a possibly more current copy.
  26 This task list is not exclusive; any other useful program might be a
  27 good project---but it might instead be something we already have, so
  28 check with @code{gnu@@prep} before you start writing it.
  29
  30 @menu
  31 * Documentation::
  32 * Unix-Related Projects::
  33 * Kernel Projects::
  34 * Extensions::
  35 * X Windows Projects::
  36 * Other Projects::
  37 * Compilers::
  38 * Games and Recreations::
  39 @end menu
  40
  41 If you start working steadily on a project, please let @code{gnu@@prep}
  42 know.  We might have information that could help you; we'd also like to
  43 send you the GNU coding standards.
  44
  45 Because of the natural tendency for most volunteers to write
  46 programming tools or programming languages, we have a comparative
  47 shortage of applications useful for non-programmer users.  Therefore,
  48 we ask you to consider writing such a program.
  49
  50 In general, a new program that does a completely new job advances the
  51 GNU project more than an improvement to an existing program.
  52
  53 @node Documentation
  54 @chapter Documentation
  55
  56 We very urgently need documentation for some parts of the system
  57 that already exist or will exist very soon:
  58
  59 @itemize @bullet
  60 @item
  61 Completion of the documentation for CC-mode, a new C/C++ mode for
  62 Emacs Lisp.
  63
  64 @item
  65 A C reference manual.  (RMS has written half of one which you could
  66 start with).
  67
  68 @item
  69 A manual for Ghostscript.
  70 @c
  71 @c @item
  72 @c A manual for CSH.
  73 @c Ick, do we want to encourage using THAT?  -djm
  74
  75 @item
  76 A manual for PIC (the graphics formatting language).
  77
  78 @item
  79 A manual for Perl.  (The books that exist are not free, and
  80 thus not available to be part of the GNU system.)
  81
  82 @item
  83 A manual for Oleo.
  84
  85 @item
  86 A book on how GCC works and why various machine descriptions
  87 are written as they are.
  88
  89 @item
  90 A manual for programming X-window applications.
  91
  92 @item
  93 Manuals for various X window managers.
  94
  95 @item
  96 Reference cards for those manuals that don't have them: Gawk, C
  97 Compiler, Make, Texinfo, Termcap and maybe the C Library.
  98
  99 @item
 100 Many utilities need documentation, including @code{grep}, @code{cpio},
 101 and other small utilities.
 102 @end itemize
 103
 104 @node Unix-Related Projects
 105 @chapter Unix-Related Projects
 106
 107 @itemize @bullet
 108 @item
 109 We could use an emulation of Unix @code{spell}, which would run by
 110 invoking @code{ispell}.
 111
 112 @item
 113 Less urgent: @code{diction}, @code{explain}, @code{style}.
 114
 115 @item
 116 An improved version of the POSIX utility @code{pax}.  There is one on
 117 the Usenet, but it is said to be poorly written.  Talk with
 118 @code{mib@@gnu.ai.mit.edu} about this project.
 119
 120 @ignore
 121 @item
 122 Modify the GNU @code{dc} program to use the math routines of GNU
 123 @code{bc}.
 124 @end ignore
 125
 126 @item
 127 A @code{grap} preprocessor program for @code{troff}.
 128
 129 @item
 130 Various other libraries.
 131
 132 @item
 133 An emulation of SCCS that works using RCS.
 134 @end itemize
 135
 136 @node Kernel Projects
 137 @chapter Kernel-Related Projects
 138
 139 @itemize @bullet
 140 @item
 141 An over-the-ethernet debugger stub that will allow the kernel to be
 142 debugged from GDB running on another machine.
 143
 144 This stub needs its own self-contained implementation of all protocols
 145 to be used, since the GNU system will use user processes to implement
 146 all but the lowest levels, and the stub won't be able to use those
 147 processes.  If a simple self-contained implementation of IP and TCP is
 148 impractical, it might be necessary to design a new, simple protocol
 149 based directly on ethernet.  It's not crucial to support high speed or
 150 communicating across gateways.
 151
 152 It might be possible to use the Mach ethernet driver code, but it would
 153 need some changes.
 154
 155 @item
 156 A shared memory X11 server to run under MACH is very desirable.  The
 157 machine specific parts should be kept well separated.
 158 @end itemize
 159
 160 @node Extensions
 161 @chapter Extensions to Existing GNU Software
 162
 163 @itemize @bullet
 164 @item
 165 Enhance GCC.  See files @file{PROJECTS} and @file{PROBLEMS} in the GCC
 166 distribution.
 167
 168 @item
 169 GNU @code{sed} probably needs to be rewritten completely just to make it
 170 cleaner.
 171
 172 @item
 173 Work on the partially-implemented C interpreter project.
 174
 175 @item
 176 Help with the development of GNUStep, a GNU implementation of the
 177 OpenStep specification.
 178
 179 @item
 180 Add features to GNU Make to record the precise rule with which each file
 181 was last recompiled; then recompile any file if its rule in the makefile
 182 has changed.
 183
 184 @item
 185 Add a few features to GNU @code{diff}, such as handling large input
 186 files without reading entire files into core.
 187
 188 @item
 189 An @code{nroff} macro package to simplify @code{texi2roff}.
 190
 191 @item
 192 A queueing system for the mailer Smail that groups pending work by
 193 destination rather than by original message.  This makes it possible
 194 to schedule retries coherently for each destination.  Talk to
 195 @code{tron@@veritas.com} about this.
 196
 197 Smail also needs a new chief maintainer.
 198
 199 @item
 200 Enhanced cross-reference browsing tools.  (We now have something at
 201 about the level of @code{cxref}.)  We also could use something like
 202 @code{ctrace}.  (Some people are now working on this project.)
 203 @end itemize
 204
 205 @node X Windows Projects
 206 @chapter X Windows Projects
 207
 208 @itemize @bullet
 209 @item
 210 An emulator for Macintosh graphics calls on top of X Windows.
 211
 212 @item
 213 A music playing and editing system.
 214
 215 @item
 216 A "disk jockey" program to keep track of a collection of recorded music
 217 samples (songs, etc), and queue up a sequence of them for playing.  This
 218 program could use rplay to do the actual playing.
 219
 220 @item
 221 A program to edit dance notation (such as labanotation) and display
 222 dancers moving on the screen.
 223
 224 @item
 225 Port the Vibrant toolkit to work on X without using Motif.
 226
 227 @item
 228 A widget for displaying circle-shaped menus ("pie menus") with X
 229 windows.
 230
 231 @item
 232 A program to display and edit Hypercard stacks.
 233
 234 @item
 235 An interface-builder program to make it easy to design graphical
 236 interfaces for applications.  This could work with the dynamic linker
 237 DLD and C++, loading in the same class definitions that will be used
 238 by the application program.
 239
 240 @item
 241 A "desktop" program with drag-and-drop icons and such.
 242
 243 @item
 244 A paint program, supporting both bitmap-oriented operations and
 245 component-oriented operations.  @code{xpaint} exists, but isn't very
 246 usable.
 247
 248 @item
 249 A program for manipulating photographs---something vaguely like Photo
 250 Shop (though not exactly like it).
 251 @end itemize
 252
 253 @node Other Projects
 254 @chapter Other Projects
 255
 256 If you think of others that should be added, please
 257 send them to @code{gnu@@prep.ai.mit.edu}.
 258
 259 @itemize @bullet
 260 @item
 261 [This seems to be being done:]
 262 A program to convert Postscript to plain ASCII text.  Ghostscript will
 263 soon have a mode to output all the text strings in a document, each with
 264 its coordinates.  You could write a program to start with this output
 265 and ``layout the page'' in ASCII.  The program will be both easier and
 266 more useful if you don't worry pedantically about how the output text
 267 should be formatted.  Instead, try to make it look reasonable as plain
 268 ASCII.
 269
 270 @item
 271 A program to convert compiled programs represented in OSF ANDF
 272 (``Architecture Neutral Distribution Format'') into ANSI C.
 273
 274 @item
 275 An imitation of Page Maker or Ventura Publisher.
 276
 277 @item
 278 An imitation of @code{dbase2} or @code{dbase3} (How dbased!)
 279
 280 @item
 281 A program to reformat Fortran programs in a way that is pretty.
 282
 283 @item
 284 A bulletin board system.  There are a few free ones, but they don't have
 285 all the features that people want in such systems.  It would make sense
 286 to start with an existing one and add the other features.
 287
 288 @item
 289 A general ledger program.
 290
 291 @item
 292 A program to typeset C code for printing.
 293 For ideas on what to do, see the forthcoming book,
 294
 295 @display
 296 Human Factors and Typography for More Readable Programs,
 297 Ronald M. Baecker and Aaron Marcus,
 298 Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-10745-7
 299 @end display
 300
 301 (I don't quite agree with a few of the details they propose.)
 302
 303 @item
 304 Speech-generation programs (there is a program from Brown U that you
 305 could improve).
 306
 307 @item
 308 Speech-recognition programs (single-speaker, disconnected speech).
 309
 310 @item
 311 Scientific mathematical subroutines, including clones of SPSS.
 312
 313 @item
 314 Statistical tools.
 315
 316 @item
 317 Software to replace card catalogues in libraries.
 318
 319 @item
 320 Grammar and style checking programs.
 321
 322 @item
 323 An implementation of the S language (an interpreted languages used for
 324 statistics).
 325
 326 @item
 327 A translator from Scheme to C.
 328
 329 @item
 330 Optical character recognition programs; especially if suitable for
 331 scanning documents with multiple fonts and capturing font info as well
 332 as character codes.  This may not be very difficult if you let it
 333 @emph{train} on part of the individual document to be scanned, so as to
 334 learn what fonts are in use in that document.  We would particularly
 335 like to scan the Century Dictionary, an unabridged dictionary now in the
 336 public domain.
 337
 338 You don't need scanning hardware to work on OCR.  We can send you
 339 bitmaps you can use as test data.
 340
 341 We may soon have an OCR program, but it will need lots of additional work.
 342
 343 @item
 344 A program to scan a line drawing and convert it to Postscript.
 345
 346 @item
 347 A program to recognize handwriting.
 348
 349 @item
 350 A pen based interface.
 351
 352 @item
 353 Software suitable for creating virtual reality user interfaces.
 354
 355 @item
 356 CAD software, such as a vague imitation of Autocad.
 357
 358 @item
 359 Software for displaying molecules.
 360
 361 @item
 362 Software for comparing DNA sequences, and finding matches and
 363 alignments.
 364 @end itemize
 365
 366 @node Compilers
 367 @chapter Compilers for Other Batch Languages
 368
 369 Volunteers are needed to write parsers/front ends for languages such as
 370 Algol 60, Algol 68, PL/I, or whatever, to be used with the code
 371 generation phases of the GNU C compiler.  (C++ and Objective C are done,
 372 Fortran is now in beta test, and Ada and Pascal are being worked on.
 373
 374 @c Fortran status is here so gnu@prep and the volunteer coordinators
 375 @c don't have to answer the question -len
 376 You can get the status of the Fortran front end with this command:
 377
 378 @example
 379 finger -l fortran@@gnu.ai.mit.edu
 380 @end example
 381
 382 @node Games and Recreations
 383 @chapter Games and Recreations
 384
 385 @itemize @bullet
 386 @item
 387 Video-oriented games should work with the X window system.
 388
 389 @item
 390 Empire (there is a free version but it needs upgrading)
 391
 392 @item
 393 An ``empire builder'' system that makes it easy to write various kinds of
 394 simulation games.
 395
 396 @item
 397 Imitations of popular video games:
 398
 399 @itemize -
 400 @item
 401 Space war, Asteroids, Pong, Columns.
 402 @item
 403 Defending cities from missiles.
 404 @item
 405 Plane shoots at lots of other planes, tanks, etc.
 406 @item
 407 Wizard fights fanciful monster.
 408 @item
 409 A golf game.
 410 @item
 411 Program a robot by sticking building blocks together,
 412 then watch it explore a world.
 413 @item
 414 Biomorph evolution (as in Scientific American).
 415 @item
 416 A program to display effects of moving at relativistic speeds.
 417 @end itemize
 418
 419 @item
 420 Intriguing screen-saver programs to make interesting pictures.
 421 Other such programs that are simply entertaining to watch.
 422 For example, an aquarium.
 423 @end itemize
 424
 425 We do not need @code{rogue}, as we have @code{hack}.
 426
 427 @contents
 428
 429 @bye