+Bugs
+ fix small memory leaks on compile-time failures
+
+Unicode support
+ finish byte <-> utf8 and localencoding <-> utf8 conversions
+ make substr($bytestr,0,0,$charstr) do the right conversion
+ add Unicode::Map equivivalent to core
+ add support for I/O disciplines
+ - a way to specify disciplines when opening things:
+ open(F, "<:crlf :utf16", $file)
+ - a way to specify disciplines for an already opened handle:
+ binmode(STDIN, ":slurp :raw")
+ - a way to set default disciplines for all handle constructors:
+ use open IN => ":any", OUT => ":utf8", SYS => ":utf16"
+ eliminate need for "use utf8;"
+ autoload utf8_heavy.pl's swash routines in swash_init()
+ autoload byte.pm when byte:: is seen by the parser
+ check uv_to_utf8() calls for buffer overflow
+ (see also "Locales", "Regexen", and "Miscellaneous")
+
Multi-threading
- $AUTOLOAD. Hmm.
- consistent semantics for exit/die in threads
- SvREFCNT_dec(curstack) in threadstart() in Thread.xs
- better support for externally created threads
- Thread::Pool
- spot-check globals like statcache and global GVs for thread-safety
+ support "use Thread;" under useithreads
+ add mechanism to:
+ - create new interpreter in a different thread
+ - exchange data between interpreters/threads
+ - share namespaces between interpreters/threads
+ work out consistent semantics for exit/die in threads
+ support for externally created threads?
+ Thread::Pool?
Compiler
auto-produce executable
from where newASSIGNOP steals the field)
Namespace cleanup
- CPP-space: restrict what we export from headers
- header-space: move into CORE/perl/
- API-space: begin list of things that constitute public api
-
-MULTIPLICITY support
- complete work on safe recursive interpreters, C<Perl->new()>
- revisit extra implicit arg that provides curthread/curinterp context
+ CPP-space: restrict what we export from headers when !PERL_CORE
+ header-space: move into CORE/perl/?
+ API-space: complete the list of things that constitute public api
Configure
+ fix the vicious cyclic multidependency of cc <-> libpth <-> loclibpth
+ libswanted <-> usethreads <-> use64bitint <-> use64bitall <->
+ uselargefiles <-> ...
make configuring+building away from source directory work (VPATH et al)
- _r support
- cross-compilation configuring
- POSIX 1003.1 1996 Edition support
+ this is related to: cross-compilation configuring
+ scenarios to consider: the host and the target might have
+ shared filesystems, or they might not (the communication
+ channel might be e.g. rsh/ssh, or some batch submission system)
+ most obviously: they might not share the same CPU
+ meaning: assume nothing about shared properties/resources
+ _r support (see Todo for mode detailed description)
+ POSIX 1003.1 1996 Edition support--realtime stuff:
+ POSIX semaphores, message queues, shared memory, realtime clocks,
+ timers, signals (the metaconfig units mostly already exist for these)
+ UNIX98 support: reader-writer locks, realtime/asynchronous IO
+ IPv6 support: see RFC2292, RFC2553
+
+Long doubles
+ figure out where the PV->NV->PV conversion gets it wrong at least
+ in AIX and Tru64 (V5.0 and onwards) when using long doubles: see the
+ regexp tricks we had to insert to t/comp/use.t and t/lib/bigfltpm.t,
+ (?:9|8999\d+) and the like.
+
+64-bit support
+ Configure probe for quad_t, uquad_t, and (argh) u_quad_t, they might
+ be in some systems the only thing working as quadtype and uquadtype.
Locales
- locales across packages?
+ deprecate traditional/legacy locales?
+ How do locales work across packages?
+ figure out how to support Unicode locales
+ suggestion: integrate the IBM Classes for Unicode (ICU)
+ http://oss.software.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/icu/project/
+ and check out also the Locale Converter:
+ http://alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/localeconverter
+ ICU is "portable, open-source Unicode library with:
+ charset-independent locales (with multiple locales simultaneously
+ supported in same thread; character conversions; formatting/parsing
+ for numbers, currencies, date/time and messages; message catalogs
+ (resources) ; transliteration, collation, normalization, and text
+ boundaries (grapheme, word, line-break))".
+ There is also 'iconv', either from XPG4 or GNU (glibc).
+ iconv is about character set conversions.
+ Either ICU or iconv would be valuable to get integrated
+ into Perl, Configure already probes for libiconv and <iconv.h>.
Regexen
+ make RE engine thread-safe
POSIX [=bar=] and [.zap.] would nice too but there's no API for them
- (=bar= could be done with Unicode, though)
+ =bar= could be done with Unicode, though, see the Unicode TR #15 about
+ normalization forms:
+ http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr15/
+ this is also a part of the Unicode 3.0:
+ http://www.unicode.org/unicode/uni2book/u2.html
+ executive summary: there are several different levels of 'equivalence'
approximate matching
+Security
+ use fchown, fchmod (and futimes?) internally when possible
+ use fchdir(how portable?)
+ create secure reliable portable temporary file modules
+ audit the standard utilities for security problems and fix them
+
Reliable Signals
custom opcodes
alternate runops() for signal despatch
figure out how to die() in delayed sighandler
- add tests for Thread::Signal
+ make Thread::Signal work under useithreads
Win32 stuff
- get PERL_OBJECT building under gcc
- get PERL_OBJECT building on non-win32
- automate generation of 'protected' prototypes for CPerlObj
- rename new headers to be consistent with the rest
- sort out the spawnvp() mess
+ sort out the spawnvp() mess for system('a','b','c') compatibility
work out DLL versioning
- style-check
Miscellaneous
- rename and alter ISA.pm
- magic_setisa should be made to update %FIELDS [???]
add new modules (Archive::Tar, Compress::Zlib, CPAN::FTP?)
- fix pod2html to generate relative URLs (replace with new PodtoHtml?)
+ sub-second sleep()? alarm()? time()? (integrate Time::HiRes?
+ Configure doesn't yet probe for usleep/nanosleep/ualarm but
+ the units exist)
+ floating point handling: nans, infinities, fp exception masks, etc.
+ at least the following interfaces exist: fp_classify(), fp_class(),
+ class(), isnan(), isinf(), isfinite(), finite(), isnormal(),
+ ordered(), fp_setmask(), fp_getmask(), fp_setround(), fp_getround(),
+ ieeefp.h, fp_class.h. There are metaconfig units for most of these.
+ Search for ifdef __osf__ in pp.c to find a temporary fix that
+ needs to be done right.
+ fix the basic arithmetics (+ - * / %) to preserve IVness/UVness if
+ both arguments are IVs/UVs
+ replace pod2html with new PodtoHtml? (requires other modules from CPAN)
automate testing with large parts of CPAN
+ Unicode collation? http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr10/
+ turn Cwd into an XS module? (Configure already probes for getcwd())
+ mmap for speeding up input? (Configure already probes for the mmap family)
+ sendmsg, recvmsg? (Configure doesn't probe for these but the units exist)
+ setitimer, getitimer? (the metaconfig units exist)
Ongoing
keep filenames 8.3 friendly, where feasible
Documentation
describe new age patterns
update perl{guts,call,embed,xs} with additions, changes to API
+ convert more examples to use autovivified filehandles
document Win32 choices
spot-check all new modules for completeness
better docs for pack()/unpack()