Commit | Line | Data |
7711098a |
1 | =head1 NAME |
2 | |
3 | perltodo - Perl TO-DO List |
4 | |
5 | =head1 DESCRIPTION |
e50bb9a1 |
6 | |
722d2a37 |
7 | This is a list of wishes for Perl. Send updates to |
e50bb9a1 |
8 | I<perl5-porters@perl.org>. If you want to work on any of these |
9 | projects, be sure to check the perl5-porters archives for past ideas, |
10 | flames, and propaganda. This will save you time and also prevent you |
11 | from implementing something that Larry has already vetoed. One set |
12 | of archives may be found at: |
13 | |
14 | http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/ |
15 | |
722d2a37 |
16 | =head1 To do during 5.6.x |
e50bb9a1 |
17 | |
722d2a37 |
18 | =head2 Support for I/O disciplines |
e50bb9a1 |
19 | |
722d2a37 |
20 | C<perlio> provides this, but the interface could be a lot more |
21 | straightforward. |
e50bb9a1 |
22 | |
4b3b956a |
23 | =head2 Autoload bytes.pm |
e50bb9a1 |
24 | |
4b3b956a |
25 | When the lexer sees, for instance, C<bytes::length>, it should |
26 | automatically load the C<bytes> pragma. |
27 | |
28 | =head2 Make "\u{XXXX}" et al work |
29 | |
30 | Danger, Will Robinson! Discussing the semantics of C<"\x{F00}">, |
31 | C<"\xF00"> and C<"\U{F00}"> on P5P I<will> lead to a long and boring |
32 | flamewar. |
e50bb9a1 |
33 | |
c6287c21 |
34 | =head2 Create a char *sv_pvprintify(sv, STRLEN *lenp, UV flags) |
0562c0e3 |
35 | |
36 | For displaying PVs with control characters, embedded nulls, and Unicode. |
37 | This would be useful for printing warnings, or data and regex dumping, |
38 | not_a_number(), and so on. |
39 | |
f35392ae |
40 | Requirements: should handle both byte and UTF8 strings. isPRINT() |
41 | characters printed as-is, character less than 256 as \xHH, Unicode |
0661e9a4 |
42 | characters as \x{HHH}. Don't assume ASCII-like, either, get somebody |
43 | on EBCDIC to test the output. |
f35392ae |
44 | |
45 | Possible options, controlled by the flags: |
0661e9a4 |
46 | - whitespace (other than ' ' of isPRINT()) printed as-is |
f35392ae |
47 | - use isPRINT_LC() instead of isPRINT() |
48 | - print control characters like this: "\cA" |
49 | - print control characters like this: "^A" |
0661e9a4 |
50 | - non-PRINTables printed as '.' instead of \xHH |
51 | - use \OOO instead of \xHH |
52 | - use the C/Perl-metacharacters like \n, \t |
f35392ae |
53 | - have a maximum length for the produced string (read it from *lenp) |
54 | - append a "..." to the produced string if the maximum length is exceeded |
0661e9a4 |
55 | - really fancy: print unicode characters as \N{...} |
f35392ae |
56 | |
722d2a37 |
57 | =head2 Overloadable regex assertions |
e50bb9a1 |
58 | |
722d2a37 |
59 | This may or may not be possible with the current regular expression |
60 | engine. The idea is that, for instance, C<\b> needs to be |
61 | algorithmically computed if you're dealing with Thai text. Hence, the |
62 | B<\b> assertion wants to be overloaded by a function. |
e50bb9a1 |
63 | |
776f8809 |
64 | =head2 Unicode |
65 | |
66 | =over 4 |
67 | |
68 | =item * |
e50bb9a1 |
69 | |
722d2a37 |
70 | Case Mappings? http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr21/ |
e50bb9a1 |
71 | |
6f16a292 |
72 | lc(), uc(), lcfirst(), and ucfirst() work only for some of the |
73 | simplest cases, where the mapping goes from a single Unicode character |
74 | to another single Unicode character. See lib/unicore/SpecCase.txt |
75 | (and CaseFold.txt). |
ac1256e8 |
76 | |
776f8809 |
77 | =item * |
e50bb9a1 |
78 | |
c6287c21 |
79 | They have some tricks Perl doesn't yet implement like character |
80 | class subtraction. |
e50bb9a1 |
81 | |
722d2a37 |
82 | http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr18/ |
e50bb9a1 |
83 | |
776f8809 |
84 | =back |
85 | |
86 | See L<perlunicode/UNICODE REGULAR EXPRESSION SUPPORT LEVEL> for what's |
87 | there and what's missing. |
88 | |
722d2a37 |
89 | =head2 use Thread for iThreads |
e50bb9a1 |
90 | |
722d2a37 |
91 | Artur Bergman's C<iThreads> module is a start on this, but needs to |
92 | be more mature. |
e50bb9a1 |
93 | |
dd0afe54 |
94 | =head2 make perl_clone optionally clone ops |
95 | |
96 | So that pseudoforking, mod_perl, iThreads and nvi will work properly |
97 | (but not as efficiently) until the regex engine is fixed to be threadsafe. |
98 | |
722d2a37 |
99 | =head2 Work out exit/die semantics for threads |
e50bb9a1 |
100 | |
722d2a37 |
101 | =head2 Typed lexicals for compiler |
e50bb9a1 |
102 | |
722d2a37 |
103 | =head2 Compiler workarounds for Win32 |
e50bb9a1 |
104 | |
722d2a37 |
105 | =head2 AUTOLOADing in the compiler |
e50bb9a1 |
106 | |
722d2a37 |
107 | =head2 Fixing comppadlist when compiling |
e50bb9a1 |
108 | |
722d2a37 |
109 | =head2 Cleaning up exported namespace |
e50bb9a1 |
110 | |
722d2a37 |
111 | =head2 Complete signal handling |
e50bb9a1 |
112 | |
722d2a37 |
113 | Add C<PERL_ASYNC_CHECK> to opcodes which loop; replace C<sigsetjmp> with |
114 | C<sigjmp>; check C<wait> for signal safety. |
e50bb9a1 |
115 | |
722d2a37 |
116 | =head2 Out-of-source builds |
e50bb9a1 |
117 | |
722d2a37 |
118 | This was done for 5.6.0, but needs reworking for 5.7.x |
e50bb9a1 |
119 | |
722d2a37 |
120 | =head2 POSIX realtime support |
e50bb9a1 |
121 | |
722d2a37 |
122 | POSIX 1003.1 1996 Edition support--realtime stuff: POSIX semaphores, |
123 | message queues, shared memory, realtime clocks, timers, signals (the |
124 | metaconfig units mostly already exist for these) |
e50bb9a1 |
125 | |
722d2a37 |
126 | =head2 UNIX98 support |
e50bb9a1 |
127 | |
722d2a37 |
128 | Reader-writer locks, realtime/asynchronous IO |
e50bb9a1 |
129 | |
722d2a37 |
130 | =head2 IPv6 Support |
e50bb9a1 |
131 | |
722d2a37 |
132 | There are non-core modules, such as C<Net::IPv6>, but these will need |
133 | integrating when IPv6 actually starts to really happen. See RFC 2292 |
134 | and RFC 2553. |
e50bb9a1 |
135 | |
722d2a37 |
136 | =head2 Long double conversion |
e50bb9a1 |
137 | |
722d2a37 |
138 | Floating point formatting is still causing some weird test failures. |
e50bb9a1 |
139 | |
722d2a37 |
140 | =head2 Locales |
e50bb9a1 |
141 | |
722d2a37 |
142 | Locales and Unicode interact with each other in unpleasant ways. |
143 | One possible solution would be to adopt/support ICU: |
e50bb9a1 |
144 | |
722d2a37 |
145 | http://oss.software.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/icu/project/ |
e50bb9a1 |
146 | |
722d2a37 |
147 | =head2 Thread-safe regexes |
e50bb9a1 |
148 | |
722d2a37 |
149 | The regular expression engine is currently non-threadsafe. |
e50bb9a1 |
150 | |
722d2a37 |
151 | =head2 Arithmetic on non-Arabic numerals |
e50bb9a1 |
152 | |
722d2a37 |
153 | C<[1234567890]> aren't the only numerals any more. |
e50bb9a1 |
154 | |
722d2a37 |
155 | =head2 POSIX Unicode character classes |
e50bb9a1 |
156 | |
722d2a37 |
157 | ([=a=] for equivalance classes, [.ch.] for collation.) |
158 | These are dependent on Unicode normalization and collation. |
e50bb9a1 |
159 | |
722d2a37 |
160 | =head2 Factoring out common suffices/prefices in regexps (trie optimization) |
c47ff5f1 |
161 | |
722d2a37 |
162 | Currently, the user has to optimize C<foo|far> and C<foo|goo> into |
163 | C<f(?:oo|ar)> and C<[fg]oo> by hand; this could be done automatically. |
e50bb9a1 |
164 | |
722d2a37 |
165 | =head2 Security audit shipped utilities |
e50bb9a1 |
166 | |
722d2a37 |
167 | All the code we ship with Perl needs to be sensible about temporary file |
168 | handling, locking, input validation, and so on. |
e50bb9a1 |
169 | |
722d2a37 |
170 | =head2 Custom opcodes |
e50bb9a1 |
171 | |
722d2a37 |
172 | Have a way to introduce user-defined opcodes without the subroutine call |
173 | overhead of an XSUB; the user should be able to create PP code. Simon |
174 | Cozens has some ideas on this. |
e50bb9a1 |
175 | |
722d2a37 |
176 | =head2 spawnvp() on Win32 |
e50bb9a1 |
177 | |
722d2a37 |
178 | Win32 has problems spawning processes, particularly when the arguments |
179 | to the child process contain spaces, quotes or tab characters. |
e50bb9a1 |
180 | |
722d2a37 |
181 | =head2 DLL Versioning |
e50bb9a1 |
182 | |
722d2a37 |
183 | Windows needs a way to know what version of a XS or C<libperl> DLL it's |
184 | loading. |
e50bb9a1 |
185 | |
722d2a37 |
186 | =head2 Introduce @( and @) |
e50bb9a1 |
187 | |
722d2a37 |
188 | C<$(> may return "foo bar baz". Unfortunately, since groups can |
189 | theoretically have spaces in their names, this could be one, two or |
190 | three groups. |
e50bb9a1 |
191 | |
722d2a37 |
192 | =head2 Floating point handling |
e50bb9a1 |
193 | |
722d2a37 |
194 | C<NaN> and C<inf> support is particularly troublesome. |
195 | (fp_classify(), fp_class(), fp_class_d(), class(), isinf(), |
196 | isfinite(), finite(), isnormal(), unordered(), <ieeefp.h>, |
197 | <fp_class.h> (there are metaconfig units for all these) (I think), |
198 | fp_setmask(), fp_getmask(), fp_setround(), fp_getround() |
199 | (no metaconfig units yet for these). Don't forget finitel(), fp_classl(), |
200 | fp_class_l(), (yes, both do, unfortunately, exist), and unorderedl().) |
e50bb9a1 |
201 | |
722d2a37 |
202 | As of Perl 5.6.1 is a Perl macro, Perl_isnan(). |
e50bb9a1 |
203 | |
722d2a37 |
204 | =head2 IV/UV preservation |
e50bb9a1 |
205 | |
722d2a37 |
206 | Nicholas Clark has done a lot of work on this, but work is continuing. |
207 | C<+>, C<-> and C<*> work, but guards need to be in place for C<%>, C</>, |
208 | C<&>, C<oct>, C<hex> and C<pack>. |
e50bb9a1 |
209 | |
722d2a37 |
210 | =head2 Replace pod2html with something using Pod::Parser |
83df6a1d |
211 | |
722d2a37 |
212 | The CPAN module C<Malik::Pod::Html> may be a more suitable basis for a |
213 | C<pod2html> convertor; the current one duplicates the functionality |
214 | abstracted in C<Pod::Parser>, which makes updating the POD language |
215 | difficult. |
e50bb9a1 |
216 | |
722d2a37 |
217 | =head2 Automate module testing on CPAN |
e50bb9a1 |
218 | |
722d2a37 |
219 | When a new Perl is being beta tested, porters have to manually grab |
220 | their favourite CPAN modules and test them - this should be done |
221 | automatically. |
e50bb9a1 |
222 | |
722d2a37 |
223 | =head2 sendmsg and recvmsg |
83df6a1d |
224 | |
722d2a37 |
225 | We have all the other BSD socket functions but these. There are |
226 | metaconfig units for these functions which can be added. To avoid these |
227 | being new opcodes, a solution similar to the way C<sockatmark> was added |
228 | would be preferable. (Autoload the C<IO::whatever> module.) |
e50bb9a1 |
229 | |
722d2a37 |
230 | =head2 Rewrite perlre documentation |
e50bb9a1 |
231 | |
722d2a37 |
232 | The new-style patterns need full documentation, and the whole document |
233 | needs to be a lot clearer. |
e50bb9a1 |
234 | |
722d2a37 |
235 | =head2 Convert example code to IO::Handle filehandles |
e50bb9a1 |
236 | |
722d2a37 |
237 | =head2 Document Win32 choices |
e50bb9a1 |
238 | |
722d2a37 |
239 | =head2 Check new modules |
e50bb9a1 |
240 | |
722d2a37 |
241 | =head2 Make roffitall find pods and libs itself |
e50bb9a1 |
242 | |
722d2a37 |
243 | Simon Cozens has done some work on this but it needs a rethink. |
e50bb9a1 |
244 | |
722d2a37 |
245 | =head1 To do at some point |
e50bb9a1 |
246 | |
722d2a37 |
247 | These are ideas that have been regularly tossed around, that most |
248 | people believe should be done maybe during 5.8.x |
e50bb9a1 |
249 | |
722d2a37 |
250 | =head2 Remove regular expression recursion |
e50bb9a1 |
251 | |
722d2a37 |
252 | Because the regular expression engine is recursive, badly designed |
253 | expressions can lead to lots of recursion filling up the stack. Ilya |
254 | claims that it is easy to convert the engine to being iterative, but |
255 | this has still not yet been done. There may be a regular expression |
256 | engine hit squad meeting at TPC5. |
e50bb9a1 |
257 | |
722d2a37 |
258 | =head2 Memory leaks after failed eval |
e50bb9a1 |
259 | |
722d2a37 |
260 | Perl will leak memory if you C<eval "hlagh hlagh hlagh hlagh">. This is |
261 | partially because it attempts to build up an op tree for that code and |
262 | doesn't properly free it. The same goes for non-syntactically-correct |
263 | regular expressions. Hugo looked into this, but decided it needed a |
264 | mark-and-sweep GC implementation. |
e50bb9a1 |
265 | |
722d2a37 |
266 | Alan notes that: The basic idea was to extend the parser token stack |
267 | (C<YYSTYPE>) to include a type field so we knew what sort of thing each |
268 | element of the stack was. The F<<perly.c> code would then have to be |
269 | postprocessed to record the type of each entry on the stack as it was |
270 | created, and the parser patched so that it could unroll the stack |
271 | properly on error. |
e50bb9a1 |
272 | |
722d2a37 |
273 | This is possible to do, but would be pretty messy to implement, as it |
274 | would rely on even more sed hackery in F<perly.fixer>. |
e50bb9a1 |
275 | |
722d2a37 |
276 | =head2 pack "(stuff)*" |
e50bb9a1 |
277 | |
722d2a37 |
278 | That's to say, C<pack "(sI)40"> would be the same as C<pack "sI"x40> |
e50bb9a1 |
279 | |
722d2a37 |
280 | =head2 bitfields in pack |
e50bb9a1 |
281 | |
722d2a37 |
282 | =head2 Cross compilation |
e50bb9a1 |
283 | |
722d2a37 |
284 | Make Perl buildable with a cross-compiler. This will play havoc with |
285 | Configure, which needs to how how the target system will respond to |
286 | its tests; maybe C<microperl> will be a good starting point here. |
287 | (Indeed, Bart Schuller reports that he compiled up C<microperl> for |
288 | the Agenda PDA and it works fine.) A really big spanner in the works |
289 | is the bootstrapping build process of Perl: if the filesystem the |
290 | target systems sees is not the same what the build host sees, various |
291 | input, output, and (Perl) library files need to be copied back and forth. |
e50bb9a1 |
292 | |
f86a8bc5 |
293 | As of 5.8.0 Configure mostly works for cross-compilation |
294 | (used successfully for iPAQ Linux), miniperl gets built, |
295 | but then building DynaLoader (and other extensions) fails |
296 | since MakeMaker knows nothing of cross-compilation. |
297 | (See INSTALL/Cross-compilation for the state of things.) |
298 | |
722d2a37 |
299 | =head2 Perl preprocessor / macros |
e50bb9a1 |
300 | |
722d2a37 |
301 | Source filters help with this, but do not get us all the way. For |
302 | instance, it should be possible to implement the C<??> operator somehow; |
303 | source filters don't (quite) cut it. |
e50bb9a1 |
304 | |
722d2a37 |
305 | =head2 Perl lexer in Perl |
a45bd81d |
306 | |
722d2a37 |
307 | Damian Conway is planning to work on this, but it hasn't happened yet. |
e50bb9a1 |
308 | |
722d2a37 |
309 | =head2 Using POSIX calls internally |
e50bb9a1 |
310 | |
722d2a37 |
311 | When faced with a BSD vs. SySV -style interface to some library or |
312 | system function, perl's roots show in that it typically prefers the BSD |
313 | interface (but falls back to the SysV one). One example is getpgrp(). |
314 | Other examples include C<memcpy> vs. C<bcopy>. There are others, mostly in |
315 | F<<pp_sys.c>. |
e50bb9a1 |
316 | |
722d2a37 |
317 | Mostly, this item is a suggestion for which way to start a journey into |
318 | an C<#ifdef> forest. It is not primarily a suggestion to eliminate any of |
319 | the C<#ifdef> forests. |
e50bb9a1 |
320 | |
722d2a37 |
321 | POSIX calls are perhaps more likely to be portable to unexpected |
322 | architectures. They are also perhaps more likely to be actively |
323 | maintained by a current vendor. They are also perhaps more likely to be |
324 | available in thread-safe versions, if appropriate. |
e50bb9a1 |
325 | |
722d2a37 |
326 | =head2 -i rename file when changed |
e50bb9a1 |
327 | |
722d2a37 |
328 | It's only necessary to rename a file when inplace editing when the file |
329 | has changed. Detecting a change is perhaps the difficult bit. |
e50bb9a1 |
330 | |
722d2a37 |
331 | =head2 All ARGV input should act like E<lt>E<gt> |
e50bb9a1 |
332 | |
2d84a16a |
333 | eg C<read(ARGV, ...)> doesn't currently read across multiple files. |
334 | |
722d2a37 |
335 | =head2 Support for rerunning debugger |
e50bb9a1 |
336 | |
722d2a37 |
337 | There should be a way of restarting the debugger on demand. |
e50bb9a1 |
338 | |
c6287c21 |
339 | =head2 Test Suite for the Debugger |
340 | |
341 | The debugger is a complex piece of software and fixing something |
342 | here may inadvertently break something else over there. To tame |
343 | this chaotic behaviour, a test suite is necessary. |
344 | |
722d2a37 |
345 | =head2 my sub foo { } |
c47ff5f1 |
346 | |
722d2a37 |
347 | The basic principle is sound, but there are problems with the semantics |
348 | of self-referential and mutually referential lexical subs: how to |
349 | declare the subs? |
c47ff5f1 |
350 | |
722d2a37 |
351 | =head2 One-pass global destruction |
c47ff5f1 |
352 | |
722d2a37 |
353 | Sweeping away all the allocated memory in one go is a laudable goal, but |
354 | it's difficult and in most cases, it's easier to let the memory get |
355 | freed by exiting. |
e50bb9a1 |
356 | |
722d2a37 |
357 | =head2 Rewrite regexp parser |
e50bb9a1 |
358 | |
722d2a37 |
359 | There has been talk recently of rewriting the regular expression parser |
360 | to produce an optree instead of a chain of opcodes; it's unclear whether |
361 | or not this would be a win. |
e50bb9a1 |
362 | |
722d2a37 |
363 | =head2 Cache recently used regexps |
e50bb9a1 |
364 | |
722d2a37 |
365 | This is to speed up |
e50bb9a1 |
366 | |
722d2a37 |
367 | for my $re (@regexps) { |
368 | $matched++ if /$re/ |
369 | } |
e50bb9a1 |
370 | |
722d2a37 |
371 | C<qr//> already gives us a way of saving compiled regexps, but it should |
372 | be done automatically. |
e50bb9a1 |
373 | |
722d2a37 |
374 | =head2 Re-entrant functions |
e50bb9a1 |
375 | |
722d2a37 |
376 | Add configure probes for C<_r> forms of system calls and fit them to the |
377 | core. Unfortunately, calling conventions for these functions and not |
378 | standardised. |
04c70446 |
379 | |
722d2a37 |
380 | =head2 Cross-compilation support |
04c70446 |
381 | |
722d2a37 |
382 | Bart Schuller reports that using C<microperl> and a cross-compiler, he |
383 | got Perl working on the Agenda PDA. However, one cannot build a full |
384 | Perl because Configure needs to get the results for the target platform, |
385 | for the host. |
e50bb9a1 |
386 | |
722d2a37 |
387 | =head2 Bit-shifting bitvectors |
e50bb9a1 |
388 | |
722d2a37 |
389 | Given: |
e50bb9a1 |
390 | |
722d2a37 |
391 | vec($v, 1000, 1) = 1; |
e50bb9a1 |
392 | |
722d2a37 |
393 | One should be able to do |
e50bb9a1 |
394 | |
722d2a37 |
395 | $v <<= 1; |
e50bb9a1 |
396 | |
722d2a37 |
397 | and have the 999'th bit set. |
e50bb9a1 |
398 | |
722d2a37 |
399 | Currently if you try with shift bitvectors you shift the NV/UV, instead |
400 | of the bits in the PV. Not very logical. |
e50bb9a1 |
401 | |
722d2a37 |
402 | =head2 debugger pragma |
e50bb9a1 |
403 | |
722d2a37 |
404 | The debugger is implemented in Perl in F<perl5db.pl>; turning it into a |
405 | pragma should be easy, but making it work lexically might be more |
406 | difficult. Fiddling with C<$^P> would be necessary. |
e50bb9a1 |
407 | |
722d2a37 |
408 | =head2 use less pragma |
e50bb9a1 |
409 | |
722d2a37 |
410 | Identify areas where speed/memory tradeoffs can be made and have a hint |
411 | to switch between them. |
e50bb9a1 |
412 | |
722d2a37 |
413 | =head2 switch structures |
e50bb9a1 |
414 | |
722d2a37 |
415 | Although we have C<Switch.pm> in core, Larry points to the dormant |
416 | C<nswitch> and C<cswitch> ops in F<pp.c>; using these opcodes would be |
417 | much faster. |
e50bb9a1 |
418 | |
722d2a37 |
419 | =head2 Cache eval tree |
e50bb9a1 |
420 | |
722d2a37 |
421 | =head2 rcatmaybe |
e50bb9a1 |
422 | |
722d2a37 |
423 | =head2 Shrink opcode tables |
e50bb9a1 |
424 | |
722d2a37 |
425 | =head2 Optimize away @_ |
e50bb9a1 |
426 | |
722d2a37 |
427 | Look at the "reification" code in C<av.c> |
e50bb9a1 |
428 | |
722d2a37 |
429 | =head2 Prototypes versus indirect objects |
e50bb9a1 |
430 | |
722d2a37 |
431 | Currently, indirect object syntax bypasses prototype checks. |
e50bb9a1 |
432 | |
722d2a37 |
433 | =head2 Install HMTL |
e50bb9a1 |
434 | |
722d2a37 |
435 | HTML versions of the documentation need to be installed by default; a |
436 | call to C<installhtml> from C<installperl> may be all that's necessary. |
e50bb9a1 |
437 | |
722d2a37 |
438 | =head2 Prototype method calls |
e50bb9a1 |
439 | |
722d2a37 |
440 | =head2 Return context prototype declarations |
e50bb9a1 |
441 | |
722d2a37 |
442 | =head2 magic_setisa |
e50bb9a1 |
443 | |
722d2a37 |
444 | =head2 Garbage collection |
e50bb9a1 |
445 | |
722d2a37 |
446 | There have been persistent mumblings about putting a mark-and-sweep |
447 | garbage detector into Perl; Alan Burlison has some ideas about this. |
e50bb9a1 |
448 | |
722d2a37 |
449 | =head2 IO tutorial |
e50bb9a1 |
450 | |
722d2a37 |
451 | Mark-Jason Dominus has the beginnings of one of these. |
e50bb9a1 |
452 | |
722d2a37 |
453 | =head2 pack/unpack tutorial |
e50bb9a1 |
454 | |
722d2a37 |
455 | Simon Cozens has the beginnings of one of these. |
e50bb9a1 |
456 | |
722d2a37 |
457 | =head2 Rewrite perldoc |
e50bb9a1 |
458 | |
722d2a37 |
459 | There are a few suggestions for what to do with C<perldoc>: maybe a |
460 | full-text search, an index function, locating pages on a particular |
461 | high-level subject, and so on. |
e50bb9a1 |
462 | |
3958b146 |
463 | =head2 Install .3p manpages |
e50bb9a1 |
464 | |
3958b146 |
465 | This is a bone of contention; we can create C<.3p> manpages for each |
722d2a37 |
466 | built-in function, but should we install them by default? Tcl does this, |
467 | and it clutters up C<apropos>. |
e50bb9a1 |
468 | |
722d2a37 |
469 | =head2 Unicode tutorial |
e50bb9a1 |
470 | |
722d2a37 |
471 | Simon Cozens promises to do this before he gets old. |
e50bb9a1 |
472 | |
722d2a37 |
473 | =head2 Update POSIX.pm for 1003.1-2 |
3958b146 |
474 | |
722d2a37 |
475 | =head2 Retargetable installation |
e50bb9a1 |
476 | |
722d2a37 |
477 | Allow C<@INC> to be changed after Perl is built. |
e50bb9a1 |
478 | |
722d2a37 |
479 | =head2 POSIX emulation on non-POSIX systems |
e50bb9a1 |
480 | |
722d2a37 |
481 | Make C<POSIX.pm> behave as POSIXly as possible everywhere, meaning we |
482 | have to implement POSIX equivalents for some functions if necessary. |
e50bb9a1 |
483 | |
722d2a37 |
484 | =head2 Rename Win32 headers |
e50bb9a1 |
485 | |
722d2a37 |
486 | =head2 Finish off lvalue functions |
487 | |
488 | They don't work in the debugger, and they don't work for list or hash |
489 | slices. |
e50bb9a1 |
490 | |
722d2a37 |
491 | =head2 Update sprintf documentation |
e50bb9a1 |
492 | |
722d2a37 |
493 | Hugo van der Sanden plans to look at this. |
e50bb9a1 |
494 | |
722d2a37 |
495 | =head2 Use fchown/fchmod internally |
e50bb9a1 |
496 | |
722d2a37 |
497 | This has been done in places, but needs a thorough code review. |
498 | Also fchdir is available in some platforms. |
e50bb9a1 |
499 | |
722d2a37 |
500 | =head1 Vague ideas |
e50bb9a1 |
501 | |
722d2a37 |
502 | Ideas which have been discussed, and which may or may not happen. |
e50bb9a1 |
503 | |
722d2a37 |
504 | =head2 ref() in list context |
e50bb9a1 |
505 | |
722d2a37 |
506 | It's unclear what this should do or how to do it without breaking old |
507 | code. |
e50bb9a1 |
508 | |
f86a8bc5 |
509 | =head2 Make tr/// return histogram of characters in list context |
e50bb9a1 |
510 | |
722d2a37 |
511 | There is a patch for this, but it may require Unicodification. |
e50bb9a1 |
512 | |
722d2a37 |
513 | =head2 Compile to real threaded code |
3958b146 |
514 | |
722d2a37 |
515 | =head2 Structured types |
3958b146 |
516 | |
722d2a37 |
517 | =head2 Modifiable $1 et al. |
e50bb9a1 |
518 | |
722d2a37 |
519 | ($x = "elephant") =~ /e(ph)/; |
520 | $1 = "g"; # $x = "elegant" |
e50bb9a1 |
521 | |
722d2a37 |
522 | What happens if there are multiple (nested?) brackets? What if the |
523 | string changes between the match and the assignment? |
e50bb9a1 |
524 | |
722d2a37 |
525 | =head2 Procedural interfaces for IO::*, etc. |
e50bb9a1 |
526 | |
722d2a37 |
527 | Some core modules have been accused of being overly-OO. Adding |
528 | procedural interfaces could demystify them. |
e50bb9a1 |
529 | |
722d2a37 |
530 | =head2 RPC modules |
e50bb9a1 |
531 | |
722d2a37 |
532 | =head2 Attach/detach debugger from running program |
e50bb9a1 |
533 | |
722d2a37 |
534 | With C<gdb>, you can attach the debugger to a running program if you |
535 | pass the process ID. It would be good to do this with the Perl debugger |
536 | on a running Perl program, although I'm not sure how it would be done. |
e50bb9a1 |
537 | |
722d2a37 |
538 | =head2 Alternative RE syntax module |
e50bb9a1 |
539 | |
722d2a37 |
540 | use Regex::Newbie; |
541 | $re = Regex::Newbie->new |
542 | ->start |
543 | ->match("foo") |
544 | ->repeat(Regex::Newbie->class("char"),3) |
545 | ->end; |
546 | /$re/; |
e50bb9a1 |
547 | |
722d2a37 |
548 | =head2 GUI::Native |
e50bb9a1 |
549 | |
722d2a37 |
550 | A non-core module that would use "native" GUI to create graphical |
551 | applications. |
e50bb9a1 |
552 | |
722d2a37 |
553 | =head2 foreach(reverse ...) |
e50bb9a1 |
554 | |
722d2a37 |
555 | Currently |
e50bb9a1 |
556 | |
722d2a37 |
557 | foreach (reverse @_) { ... } |
e50bb9a1 |
558 | |
722d2a37 |
559 | puts C<@_> on the stack, reverses it putting the reversed version on the |
560 | stack, then iterates forwards. Instead, it could be special-cased to put |
561 | C<@_> on the stack then iterate backwards. |
e50bb9a1 |
562 | |
722d2a37 |
563 | =head2 Constant function cache |
e50bb9a1 |
564 | |
722d2a37 |
565 | =head2 Approximate regular expression matching |
e50bb9a1 |
566 | |
722d2a37 |
567 | =head1 Ongoing |
e50bb9a1 |
568 | |
722d2a37 |
569 | These items B<always> need doing: |
e50bb9a1 |
570 | |
722d2a37 |
571 | =head2 Update guts documentation |
e50bb9a1 |
572 | |
722d2a37 |
573 | Simon Cozens tries to do this when possible, and contributions to the |
574 | C<perlapi> documentation is welcome. |
e50bb9a1 |
575 | |
722d2a37 |
576 | =head2 Add more tests |
e50bb9a1 |
577 | |
722d2a37 |
578 | Michael Schwern will donate $500 to Yet Another Society when all core |
579 | modules have tests. |
e50bb9a1 |
580 | |
722d2a37 |
581 | =head2 Update auxiliary tools |
e50bb9a1 |
582 | |
722d2a37 |
583 | The code we ship with Perl should look like good Perl 5. |
e50bb9a1 |
584 | |
722d2a37 |
585 | =head1 Recently done things |
e50bb9a1 |
586 | |
722d2a37 |
587 | These are things which have been on the todo lists in previous releases |
588 | but have recently been completed. |
e50bb9a1 |
589 | |
722d2a37 |
590 | =head2 Safe signal handling |
e50bb9a1 |
591 | |
722d2a37 |
592 | A new signal model went into 5.7.1 without much fanfare. Operations and |
593 | C<malloc>s are no longer interrupted by signals, which are handled |
594 | between opcodes. This means that C<PERL_ASYNC_CHECK> now actually does |
595 | something. However, there are still a few things that need to be done. |
e50bb9a1 |
596 | |
722d2a37 |
597 | =head2 Tie Modules |
e50bb9a1 |
598 | |
722d2a37 |
599 | Modules which implement arrays in terms of strings, substrings or files |
600 | can be found on the CPAN. |
e50bb9a1 |
601 | |
722d2a37 |
602 | =head2 gettimeofday |
e50bb9a1 |
603 | |
722d2a37 |
604 | C<Time::Hires> has been integrated into the core. |
e50bb9a1 |
605 | |
722d2a37 |
606 | =head2 setitimer and getimiter |
e50bb9a1 |
607 | |
722d2a37 |
608 | Adding C<Time::Hires> got us this too. |
e50bb9a1 |
609 | |
722d2a37 |
610 | =head2 Testing __DIE__ hook |
611 | |
612 | Tests have been added. |
613 | |
614 | =head2 CPP equivalent in Perl |
e50bb9a1 |
615 | |
722d2a37 |
616 | A C Yardley will probably have done this by the time you can read this. |
617 | This allows for a generalization of the C constant detection used in |
618 | building C<Errno.pm>. |
e50bb9a1 |
619 | |
722d2a37 |
620 | =head2 Explicit switch statements |
e50bb9a1 |
621 | |
722d2a37 |
622 | C<Switch.pm> has been integrated into the core to give you all manner of |
623 | C<switch...case> semantics. |
e50bb9a1 |
624 | |
722d2a37 |
625 | =head2 autocroak |
e50bb9a1 |
626 | |
722d2a37 |
627 | This is C<Fatal.pm>. |
e50bb9a1 |
628 | |
722d2a37 |
629 | =head2 UTF/EBCDIC |
e50bb9a1 |
630 | |
722d2a37 |
631 | Nick Ing-Simmons has made UTF-EBCDIC (UTR13) work with Perl. |
e50bb9a1 |
632 | |
722d2a37 |
633 | EBCDIC? http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr16/ |
e50bb9a1 |
634 | |
722d2a37 |
635 | =head2 UTF Regexes |
e50bb9a1 |
636 | |
722d2a37 |
637 | Although there are probably some small bugs to be rooted out, Jarkko |
638 | Hietaniemi has made regular expressions polymorphic between bytes and |
639 | characters. |
e50bb9a1 |
640 | |
722d2a37 |
641 | =head2 perlcc to produce executable |
e50bb9a1 |
642 | |
722d2a37 |
643 | C<perlcc> was recently rewritten, and can now produce standalone |
644 | executables. |
e50bb9a1 |
645 | |
722d2a37 |
646 | =head2 END blocks saved in compiled output |
e50bb9a1 |
647 | |
722d2a37 |
648 | =head2 Secure temporary file module |
e50bb9a1 |
649 | |
722d2a37 |
650 | Tim Jenness' C<File::Temp> is now in core. |
e50bb9a1 |
651 | |
722d2a37 |
652 | =head2 Integrate Time::HiRes |
e50bb9a1 |
653 | |
722d2a37 |
654 | This module is now part of core. |
e50bb9a1 |
655 | |
722d2a37 |
656 | =head2 Turn Cwd into XS |
e50bb9a1 |
657 | |
722d2a37 |
658 | Benjamin Sugars has done this. |
e50bb9a1 |
659 | |
722d2a37 |
660 | =head2 Mmap for input |
e50bb9a1 |
661 | |
722d2a37 |
662 | Nick Ing-Simmons' C<perlio> supports an C<mmap> IO method. |
e50bb9a1 |
663 | |
722d2a37 |
664 | =head2 Byte to/from UTF8 and UTF8 to/from local conversion |
e50bb9a1 |
665 | |
722d2a37 |
666 | C<Encode> provides this. |
e50bb9a1 |
667 | |
722d2a37 |
668 | =head2 Add sockatmark support |
e50bb9a1 |
669 | |
722d2a37 |
670 | Added in 5.7.1 |
e50bb9a1 |
671 | |
722d2a37 |
672 | =head2 Mailing list archives |
673 | |
674 | http://lists.perl.org/, http://archive.develooper.com/ |
675 | |
676 | =head2 Bug tracking |
677 | |
678 | Richard Foley has written the bug tracking system at http://bugs.perl.org/ |
e50bb9a1 |
679 | |
722d2a37 |
680 | =head2 Integrate MacPerl |
e50bb9a1 |
681 | |
722d2a37 |
682 | Chris Nandor and Matthias Neeracher have integrated the MacPerl changes |
683 | into 5.6.0. |
e50bb9a1 |
684 | |
722d2a37 |
685 | =head2 Web "nerve center" for Perl |
e50bb9a1 |
686 | |
722d2a37 |
687 | http://use.perl.org/ is what you're looking for. |
e50bb9a1 |
688 | |
722d2a37 |
689 | =head2 Regular expression tutorial |
e50bb9a1 |
690 | |
722d2a37 |
691 | C<perlretut>, provided by Mark Kvale. |
e50bb9a1 |
692 | |
722d2a37 |
693 | =head2 Debugging Tutorial |
e50bb9a1 |
694 | |
722d2a37 |
695 | C<perldebtut>, written by Richard Foley. |
e50bb9a1 |
696 | |
722d2a37 |
697 | =head2 Integrate new modules |
e50bb9a1 |
698 | |
722d2a37 |
699 | Jarkko has been integrating madly into 5.7.x |
e50bb9a1 |
700 | |
722d2a37 |
701 | =head2 Integrate profiler |
e50bb9a1 |
702 | |
722d2a37 |
703 | C<Devel::DProf> is now a core module. |
e50bb9a1 |
704 | |
722d2a37 |
705 | =head2 Y2K error detection |
e50bb9a1 |
706 | |
722d2a37 |
707 | There's a configure option to detect unsafe concatenation with "19", and |
708 | a CPAN module. (C<D'oh::Year>) |
e50bb9a1 |
709 | |
722d2a37 |
710 | =head2 Regular expression debugger |
e50bb9a1 |
711 | |
722d2a37 |
712 | While not part of core, Mark-Jason Dominus has written C<Rx> and has |
713 | also come up with a generalised strategy for regular expression |
714 | debugging. |
e50bb9a1 |
715 | |
722d2a37 |
716 | =head2 POD checker |
e50bb9a1 |
717 | |
722d2a37 |
718 | That's, uh, F<podchecker> |
e50bb9a1 |
719 | |
722d2a37 |
720 | =head2 "Dynamic" lexicals |
e50bb9a1 |
721 | |
722d2a37 |
722 | =head2 Cache precompiled modules |
e50bb9a1 |
723 | |
722d2a37 |
724 | =head1 Deprecated Wishes |
e50bb9a1 |
725 | |
722d2a37 |
726 | These are items which used to be in the todo file, but have been |
727 | deprecated for some reason. |
e50bb9a1 |
728 | |
722d2a37 |
729 | =head2 Loop control on do{} |
e50bb9a1 |
730 | |
722d2a37 |
731 | This would break old code; use C<do{{ }}> instead. |
e50bb9a1 |
732 | |
722d2a37 |
733 | =head2 Lexically scoped typeglobs |
e50bb9a1 |
734 | |
722d2a37 |
735 | Not needed now we have lexical IO handles. |
e50bb9a1 |
736 | |
722d2a37 |
737 | =head2 format BOTTOM |
3958b146 |
738 | |
722d2a37 |
739 | =head2 report HANDLE |
e50bb9a1 |
740 | |
722d2a37 |
741 | Damian Conway's text formatting modules seem to be the Way To Go. |
e50bb9a1 |
742 | |
722d2a37 |
743 | =head2 Generalised want()/caller()) |
3958b146 |
744 | |
722d2a37 |
745 | =head2 Named prototypes |
e50bb9a1 |
746 | |
722d2a37 |
747 | These both seem to be delayed until Perl 6. |
e50bb9a1 |
748 | |
722d2a37 |
749 | =head2 Built-in globbing |
e50bb9a1 |
750 | |
722d2a37 |
751 | The C<File::Glob> module has been used to replace the C<glob> function. |
e50bb9a1 |
752 | |
722d2a37 |
753 | =head2 Regression tests for suidperl |
e50bb9a1 |
754 | |
722d2a37 |
755 | C<suidperl> is deprecated in favour of common sense. |
e50bb9a1 |
756 | |
722d2a37 |
757 | =head2 Cached hash values |
e50bb9a1 |
758 | |
722d2a37 |
759 | We have shared hash keys, which perform the same job. |
e50bb9a1 |
760 | |
722d2a37 |
761 | =head2 Add compression modules |
e50bb9a1 |
762 | |
722d2a37 |
763 | The compression modules are a little heavy; meanwhile, Nick Clark is |
764 | working on experimental pragmata to do transparent decompression on |
765 | input. |
e50bb9a1 |
766 | |
722d2a37 |
767 | =head2 Reorganise documentation into tutorials/references |
e50bb9a1 |
768 | |
722d2a37 |
769 | Could not get consensus on P5P about this. |
e50bb9a1 |
770 | |
722d2a37 |
771 | =head2 Remove distinction between functions and operators |
772 | |
773 | Caution: highly flammable. |
774 | |
775 | =head2 Make XS easier to use |
e50bb9a1 |
776 | |
722d2a37 |
777 | Use C<Inline> instead, or SWIG. |
e50bb9a1 |
778 | |
722d2a37 |
779 | =head2 Make embedding easier to use |
e50bb9a1 |
780 | |
722d2a37 |
781 | Use C<Inline::CPR>. |
e50bb9a1 |
782 | |
722d2a37 |
783 | =head2 man for perl |
04c70446 |
784 | |
722d2a37 |
785 | See the Perl Power Tools. (http://language.perl.com/ppt/) |
04c70446 |
786 | |
722d2a37 |
787 | =head2 my $Package::variable |
04c70446 |
788 | |
722d2a37 |
789 | Use C<our> instead. |
04c70446 |
790 | |
722d2a37 |
791 | =head2 "or" tests defined, not truth |
04c70446 |
792 | |
722d2a37 |
793 | Suggesting this on P5P B<will> cause a boring and interminable flamewar. |
04c70446 |
794 | |
722d2a37 |
795 | =head2 "class"-based lexicals |
04c70446 |
796 | |
cbb3fa72 |
797 | Use flyweight objects, secure hashes or, dare I say it, pseudo-hashes instead. |
f86a8bc5 |
798 | (Or whatever will replace pseudohashes in 5.10.) |
04c70446 |
799 | |
722d2a37 |
800 | =head2 byteperl |
04c70446 |
801 | |
722d2a37 |
802 | C<ByteLoader> covers this. |
04c70446 |
803 | |
722d2a37 |
804 | =head2 Lazy evaluation / tail recursion removal |
04c70446 |
805 | |
f86a8bc5 |
806 | C<List::Util> gives first() (a short-circuiting grep); tail recursion |
807 | removal is done manually, with C<goto &whoami;>. (However, MJD has |
808 | found that C<goto &whoami> introduces a performance penalty, so maybe |
809 | there should be a way to do this after all: C<sub foo {START: ... goto |
810 | START;> is better.) |
0562c0e3 |
811 | |
812 | =head2 Make "use utf8" the default |
813 | |
f86a8bc5 |
814 | Because of backward compatibility this is difficult: scripts could not |
815 | contain B<any legacy eight-bit data> (like Latin-1) anymore, even in |
816 | string literals or pod. Also would introduce a measurable slowdown of |
817 | at least few percentages since all regular expression operations would |
818 | be done in full UTF-8. But if you want to try this, add |
819 | -DUSE_UTF8_SCRIPTS to your compilation flags. |
820 | |
3298bd4d |
821 | =head2 Unicode collation and normalization |
822 | |
823 | The Unicode::Collate and Unicode::Normalize modules |
824 | by SADAHIRO Tomoyuki have been included since 5.8.0. |
825 | |
826 | Collation? http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr10/ |
827 | Normalization? http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr15/ |
0562c0e3 |
828 | |
3298bd4d |
829 | =cut |