tasks.texi

windows版本的emacs

\input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
@c %**start of header
@setfilename tasks.info
@settitle GNU Task List
@c This date is automagically updated when you save this file:
@set lastupdate January 15, 2001
@c %**end of header

@setchapternewpage off

@titlepage
@title GNU Task List
@author Free Software Foundation
@author last updated @value{lastupdate}
@end titlepage

@ifinfo
@node Top, Intro, (dir), (dir)
@top GNU Task List

This file is updated automatically from @file{tasks.texi}, which was
last updated on @value{lastupdate}.  See also
@uref{http://www.gnu.org/help/help.html#helpgnu} for other suggested
tasks.
@end ifinfo

@menu
* Intro::                       
* Highest Priority::            
* Documentation::               
* Unix-Related Projects::       
* Kernel Projects::             
* Extensions::                  
* X Windows Projects::          
* Network Projects::            
* Encryption Projects::         
* Other Projects::              
* Languages::                   
* Education::                   
* Games and Recreations::       
@end menu

@node Intro, Highest Priority, Top, Top
@chapter About the GNU Task List

If you did not obtain this file directly from the GNU project and
recently, please check for a newer version.  You can ftp the task list
from any GNU FTP host in directory @file{/pub/gnu/tasks/}.  The task
list is available there in several different formats: @file{tasks.text},
@file{tasks.texi}, @file{tasks.info}, and @file{tasks.dvi}.  The GNU
HURD task list is also there in file @file{tasks.hurd}.
@c to fix an overfill, join the paragraphs -len
The task list is also available on the GNU World Wide Web server:
@uref{http://www.gnu.org/prep/tasks_toc.html}.

If you start working steadily on a project, please let @email{gvc@@gnu.org}
know.  We might have information that could help you; we'd also like to
send you the GNU coding standards.

Because of the natural tendency for most volunteers to write programming
tools or programming languages, we have a comparative shortage of
applications useful for non-programmer users.  Therefore, we ask you to
consider writing such a program.

Typically, a new program that does a completely new job advances
the GNU project, and the free software community, more than an
improvement to an existing program.

Typically, new features or new programs advance the free software
community more, in the long run, than porting existing programs.  One
reason is that portable new features and programs benefit people on many
platforms, not just one.  At the same time, there tend to be many
volunteers for porting---so your help will be more valuable in other
areas, where volunteers are more scarce.

Typically, it is more useful to extend a program in functionality than
to improve performance.  Users who use the new functionality will
appreciate it very much, if they use it; but even when they benefit from
a performance improvement, they may not consider it very important.

Finally, if you think of an important job that free software cannot
solve yet that is typically solved by proprietary software, please send
a short description of that job to @email{tasks@@gnu.org} so that we can
add it to this task list.

@node Highest Priority, Documentation, Intro, Top
@chapter Highest Priority

This task list mentions a large number of tasks that would be more or
less useful.  With luck, at least one of them will inspire you to start
writing.  It's better for you to work on any task that inspires you than
not write free software at all.

But if you would like to work on what we need most, here is a list of
high priority projects.

@itemize @bullet

@item 
A new maintainer is needed for Goose
@uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/goose/goose.html}.

@item
If you are good at writing documentation, please do that.

@item
If you are very good at C programming and interested in kernels, you can
help develop the GNU HURD, the kernel for the GNU system.  Please have a
look at @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hurd.html}, and
then get a copy of the latest HURD task list from:

@itemize @bullet

@item
@uref{http://www.gnu.org/prep/tasks.hurd.html}, via the World Wide
Web.

@item
@uref{ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/tasks/tasks.hurd}, via anonymous FTP.

@item
@email{gvc@@gnu.org} via e-mail.

@end itemize

@item
If you are a Scheme fan, you can help develop Guile.  Please have a look
at the URL @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/guile/guile.html}
and then contact the Guile developers at @email{guile@@gnu.org}.

@item
Improve the facilities for translating other languages into Scheme,
so that Guile can provide support for a variety of languages.

@item
A package to convert programs written using MS Access into Scheme,
making use of a free data base system and the GTK toolkit.

@ignore
@item
Help develop XmHTML.  See @uref{http://www.xs4all.nl/~ripley/XmHTML/}.
@end ignore

@item
Help develop software to emulate Windows NT on top of GNU systems.
For example, you could help work on Willows Twin.
See @uref{http://www.willows.com/}.

@item
Add gettext support to GNU programs that don't have it already.  (Please
contact the developers of the specific packages that you want to work
on.) 

@ignore  The Kermit developers say they will provide a free program
to do this.
@item
Implement the Kermit data transfer protocol.  (See below.)
@end ignore

@ignore This is being done (Harmony)
@item
Develop a free compatible replacement for Qt, a GUI toolkit library.  Qt
is not free software, because users are prohibited from distributing
modified versions.  Thus, Qt cannot be included in a free operating
system (adding it would make the system as a whole non-free).

But some developers are writing free applications that use Qt and cannot
run without it.  These programs, although free software, are useless for
free operating systems because there is no way to make them run.

This is leading to a serious problem, and a free replacement for Qt is
the only solution.  Hence the high degree of urgency of this project.
@end ignore

@item
Develop a substitute, which runs on GNU systems, for some very popular
or very important application that many non-programmers use on Windows,
and which has no comparable free equivalent now.
@end itemize

@node Documentation, Unix-Related Projects, Highest Priority, Top
@chapter Documentation

We very urgently need documentation for many existing parts of the
system.

Note that there are proprietary manuals for many of these topics, but
proprietary manuals do not count, for the same reason proprietary
software does not count: we are not free to copy and modify them.
We do not recommend any non-free materials as documentation.

@itemize @bullet

@item
A reference document for SQL for use as a standard for implementors of
free software versions of SQL.

@item
A manual for libstdc++.

@item
A unified manual for La@TeX{}.  (Existing documentation is non-free.)

@item
A manual for Docbook SGML format. 

@item
A tutorial introduction to Midnight Commander.

@item
A thorough manual for RCS.

@item
A reference manual for Mach.

@item
A reference manual for the GNU Hurd features in GNU libc.

@item
A manual for writing Hurd servers.

@item
A manual for GNU sed.

@item
Reference manuals for C++, Objective C, Pascal, Fortran 77, and Java.

@item
A tutorial manual for the C++ STL (standard template library).

@item
A tutorial manual for Gforth.

@item
GNU Objective-C Runtime Library Manual; this would be a reference manual
for the runtime library functions, structures, and classes.  Some work
has been done on this job.

@item
Manuals for GNUstep: developer tutorial, developer programming manual,
developer reference manual, and user manual.

@item
A manual for Ghostscript.

@item
A manual for TCSH.

@item
A coherent free reference manual for Perl.  Most of the Perl on-line
reference documentation can be used as a starting point, but work is
needed to weld them together into a coherent manual.

@ignore
@c Bradley M. Kuhn is working on this. <[e-mail]>
@item
A good free Perl language tutorial introduction.  The existing Perl
introductions are published with restrictions on copying and
modification, so that they cannot be part of a GNU system.
@end ignore

@item
A manual for PIC (the graphics formatting language).

@item
A book on how GCC works and why various machine descriptions
are written as they are.

@item
A manual for programming applications for X11.

@item
Manuals for various X window managers.

@item
Reference cards for those manuals that don't have them: C
Compiler, Make, Texinfo, Termcap, and maybe the C Library.

@item
Many utilities still need documentation.
@end itemize

@node Unix-Related Projects, Kernel Projects, Documentation, Top
@chapter Unix-Related Projects

@itemize @bullet
@ignore
@item
Modify the GNU @code{dc} program to use the math routines of GNU
@code{bc}.
@end ignore

@item
Less urgent: make a replacement for the ``writer's workbench'' program
@code{style}, or something to do the same kind of job.  Compatibility
with Unix is not especially important for this program.

@item
Rewrite @code{indent} from scratch to make it cleaner.

@item
Write a free software replacement for the @code{agrep} program.

@end itemize

@node Kernel Projects, Extensions, Unix-Related Projects, Top
@chapter Kernel-Related Projects

@itemize @bullet
@item
An over-the-ethernet debugger stub that will allow the kernel to be
debugged from GDB running on another machine.

This stub needs its own self-contained implementation of all protocols
to be used, since the GNU system will use user processes to implement
all but the lowest levels, and the stub won't be able to use those
processes.  If a simple self-contained implementation of IP and TCP is
impractical, it might be necessary to design a new, simple protocol
based directly on ethernet.  It's not crucial to support high speed or
communicating across gateways.

It might be possible to use the Mach ethernet driver code, but it would
need some changes.

@item
A shared memory X11 server to run under MACH is very desirable.  The
machine specific parts should be kept well separated.

@item
An implementation of CIFS, the ``Common Internet File System,'' for the
HURD.  This protocol is an offshoot of SMB.

@item
Support (in Linux?) for dumping the non-textual contents of an SVGA
console.
@end itemize

@node Extensions, X Windows Projects, Kernel Projects, Top
@chapter Extensions to Existing GNU Software

@itemize @bullet
@item
Enhance GCC.  See files @file{PROJECTS} and @file{PROBLEMS} in the GCC
distribution.

@item
Interface GDB to Guile, so that users can write debugging commands in
Scheme.  This would also make it possible to write, in Scheme, a
graphical interface that uses GTK and is tightly integrated into GDB.

@item
Extend Octave to support programs that were written
to run on Khoros.

@item
Rewrite Automake in Scheme, so it can run in Guile.  Right now it is
written in Perl.  There are also other programs, not terribly long,
which we would also like to have rewritten in Scheme.

@item
Finish the partially-implemented C interpreter project.

@item
Help with the development of GNUstep, a GNU implementation of the
OpenStep specification.

@item
Add features to GNU Make to record the precise rule with which each file
was last recompiled; then recompile any file if its rule in the makefile
has changed.

@item
Add a few features to GNU @code{diff}, such as handling large input
files without reading entire files into core.

@item
An @code{nroff} macro package to simplify @code{texi2roff}.

@item
A queueing system for the mailer Smail that groups pending work by
destination rather than by original message.  This makes it possible
to schedule retries coherently for each destination.  Talk to
@email{tron@@veritas.com} and @email{woods@@weird.com} about this.

@end itemize

@node X Windows Projects, Network Projects, Extensions, Top
@chapter X Windows Projects

@itemize @bullet
@item
An emulator for Macintosh graphics calls on top of X Windows.

@item

A package that emulates the API of Visual C++'s Foundation Classes
(MFC), but operates on top of X11.  It need not match the screen
appearance provided by MFC.  Instead, it would be best to use GTK, so as
to give coherence with GNOME.

@ignore
@c GNOME Basic is doing this
@item
A compatible replacement for Visual Basic, running on top of X11.
It need not match the screen appearance of Visual C++.  Instead,
it would be best to use GTK, so as to give coherence with GNOME.
@end ignore

@ignore
@c Denemo is doing this.
@item
A music playing and editing system.  This should work with LilyPond, a
GNU program for music typesetting.
@end ignore