Initial commit of OpenSPARC T2 design and verification files.
[OpenSPARC-T2-DV] / tools / perl-5.8.0 / man / man1 / perltodo.1
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129.\" ========================================================================
130.\"
131.IX Title "PERLTODO 1"
132.TH PERLTODO 1 "2002-06-08" "perl v5.8.0" "Perl Programmers Reference Guide"
133.SH "NAME"
134perltodo \- Perl TO\-DO List
135.SH "DESCRIPTION"
136.IX Header "DESCRIPTION"
137This is a list of wishes for Perl. Send updates to
138\&\fIperl5\-porters@perl.org\fR. If you want to work on any of these
139projects, be sure to check the perl5\-porters archives for past ideas,
140flames, and propaganda. This will save you time and also prevent you
141from implementing something that Larry has already vetoed. One set
142of archives may be found at:
143.PP
144.Vb 1
145\& http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/
146.Ve
147.SH "To do during 5.6.x"
148.IX Header "To do during 5.6.x"
149.Sh "Support for I/O disciplines"
150.IX Subsection "Support for I/O disciplines"
151\&\f(CW\*(C`perlio\*(C'\fR provides this, but the interface could be a lot more
152straightforward.
153.Sh "Autoload bytes.pm"
154.IX Subsection "Autoload bytes.pm"
155When the lexer sees, for instance, \f(CW\*(C`bytes::length\*(C'\fR, it should
156automatically load the \f(CW\*(C`bytes\*(C'\fR pragma.
157.ie n .Sh "Make ""\eu{\s-1XXXX\s0}"" et al work"
158.el .Sh "Make ``\eu{\s-1XXXX\s0}'' et al work"
159.IX Subsection "Make u{XXXX} et al work"
160Danger, Will Robinson! Discussing the semantics of \f(CW"\ex{F00}"\fR,
161\&\f(CW"\exF00"\fR and \f(CW"\eU{F00}"\fR on P5P \fIwill\fR lead to a long and boring
162flamewar.
163.Sh "Create a char *sv_pvprintify(sv, \s-1STRLEN\s0 *lenp, \s-1UV\s0 flags)"
164.IX Subsection "Create a char *sv_pvprintify(sv, STRLEN *lenp, UV flags)"
165For displaying PVs with control characters, embedded nulls, and Unicode.
166This would be useful for printing warnings, or data and regex dumping,
167\&\fInot_a_number()\fR, and so on.
168.PP
169Requirements: should handle both byte and \s-1UTF8\s0 strings. \fIisPRINT()\fR
170characters printed as\-is, character less than 256 as \exHH, Unicode
171characters as \ex{\s-1HHH\s0}. Don't assume ASCII\-like, either, get somebody
172on \s-1EBCDIC\s0 to test the output.
173.PP
174Possible options, controlled by the flags:
175\&\- whitespace (other than ' ' of \fIisPRINT()\fR) printed as-is
176\&\- use \fIisPRINT_LC()\fR instead of \fIisPRINT()\fR
177\&\- print control characters like this: \*(L"\ecA\*(R"
178\&\- print control characters like this: \*(L"^A\*(R"
179\&\- non-PRINTables printed as '.' instead of \exHH
180\&\- use \eOOO instead of \exHH
181\&\- use the C/Perl\-metacharacters like \en, \et
182\&\- have a maximum length for the produced string (read it from *lenp)
183\&\- append a \*(L"...\*(R" to the produced string if the maximum length is exceeded
184\&\- really fancy: print unicode characters as \eN{...}
185.PP
186\&\s-1NOTE:\s0 \fIpv_display()\fR, \fIpv_uni_display()\fR, \fIsv_uni_display()\fR are already
187doing something like the above.
188.Sh "Overloadable regex assertions"
189.IX Subsection "Overloadable regex assertions"
190This may or may not be possible with the current regular expression
191engine. The idea is that, for instance, \f(CW\*(C`\eb\*(C'\fR needs to be
192algorithmically computed if you're dealing with Thai text. Hence, the
193\&\fB\eb\fR assertion wants to be overloaded by a function.
194.Sh "Unicode"
195.IX Subsection "Unicode"
196.IP "\(bu" 4
197Allow for long form of the General Category Properties, e.g
198\&\f(CW\*(C`\ep{IsOpenPunctuation}\*(C'\fR, not just the abbreviated form, e.g.
199\&\f(CW\*(C`\ep{IsPs}\*(C'\fR.
200.IP "\(bu" 4
201Allow for the metaproperties: \f(CW\*(C`XID Start\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`XID Continue\*(C'\fR,
202\&\f(CW\*(C`NF*_NO\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`NF*_MAYBE\*(C'\fR (require the DerivedCoreProperties and
203DerviceNormalizationProperties files).
204.Sp
205There are also multiple value properties still unimplemented:
206\&\f(CW\*(C`Numeric Type\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`East Asian Width\*(C'\fR.
207.IP "\(bu" 4
208.Vb 1
209\& Case Mappings? http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr21/
210.Ve
211.Sp
212Mostly implemented (all of 1:1, 1:N, N:1), only the \*(L"final sigma\*(R"
213and locale-specific rules of SpecCase are not implemented.
214.IP "\(bu" 4
215\&\s-1UTF\-8\s0 identifier names should probably be canonicalized: \s-1NFC\s0?
216.IP "\(bu" 4
217\&\s-1UTF\-8\s0 in package names and sub names? The first is problematic
218because of the mapping to pathnames, ditto for the second one if
219one does autosplitting, for example. Some of this works already
220in 5.8.0, but essentially it is unsupported. Constructs to consider,
221at the very least:
222.Sp
223.Vb 11
224\& use utf8;
225\& package UnicodePackage;
226\& sub new { bless {}, shift };
227\& sub UnicodeMethod1 { ... $_[0]->UnicodeMethod2(...) ... }
228\& sub UnicodeMethod2 { ... } # in here caller(0) should contain Unicode
229\& ...
230\& package main;
231\& my $x = UnicodePackage->new;
232\& print ref $x, "\en"; # should be Unicode
233\& $x->UnicodeMethod1(...);
234\& my $y = UnicodeMethod3 UnicodePackage ...;
235.Ve
236.Sp
237In the above all \fIUnicodeXxx\fR contain (identifier\-worthy) characters
238beyond the code point 255, for example 256. Wherever package/class or
239subroutine names can be returned needs to be checked for Unicodeness.
240.PP
241See \*(L"\s-1UNICODE\s0 \s-1REGULAR\s0 \s-1EXPRESSION\s0 \s-1SUPPORT\s0 \s-1LEVEL\s0\*(R" in perlunicode for what's
242there and what's missing. Almost all of Levels 2 and 3 is missing,
243and as of 5.8.0 not even all of Level 1 is there.
244They have some tricks Perl doesn't yet implement, such as character
245class subtraction.
246.PP
247.Vb 1
248\& http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr18/
249.Ve
250.Sh "Work out exit/die semantics for threads"
251.IX Subsection "Work out exit/die semantics for threads"
252There are some suggestions to use for example something like this:
253default to \*(L"(thread exiting first will) wait for the other threads
254until up to 60 seconds\*(R". Other possibilities:
255.PP
256.Vb 1
257\& use threads wait => 0;
258.Ve
259.PP
260Do not wait.
261.PP
262.Vb 1
263\& use threads wait_for => 10;
264.Ve
265.PP
266Wait up to 10 seconds.
267.PP
268.Vb 1
269\& use threads wait_for => -1;
270.Ve
271.PP
272Wait for ever.
273.PP
274http://archive.develooper.com/perl5\-porters@perl.org/msg79618.html
275.Sh "Better support for nonpreemptive threading systems like \s-1GNU\s0 pth"
276.IX Subsection "Better support for nonpreemptive threading systems like GNU pth"
277To better support nonpreemptive threading systems, perhaps some of the
278blocking functions internally in Perl should do a \fIyield()\fR before a
279blocking call. (Now certain threads tests ({basic,list,thread.t})
280simply do a \fIyield()\fR before they \fIsleep()\fR to give nonpreemptive thread
281implementations a chance).
282.PP
283In some cases, like the \s-1GNU\s0 pth, which has replacement functions that
284are nonblocking (pth_select instead of select), maybe Perl should be
285using them instead when built for threading.
286.Sh "Typed lexicals for compiler"
287.IX Subsection "Typed lexicals for compiler"
288.Sh "Compiler workarounds for Win32"
289.IX Subsection "Compiler workarounds for Win32"
290.Sh "AUTOLOADing in the compiler"
291.IX Subsection "AUTOLOADing in the compiler"
292.Sh "Fixing comppadlist when compiling"
293.IX Subsection "Fixing comppadlist when compiling"
294.Sh "Cleaning up exported namespace"
295.IX Subsection "Cleaning up exported namespace"
296.Sh "Complete signal handling"
297.IX Subsection "Complete signal handling"
298Add \f(CW\*(C`PERL_ASYNC_CHECK\*(C'\fR to opcodes which loop; replace \f(CW\*(C`sigsetjmp\*(C'\fR with
299\&\f(CW\*(C`sigjmp\*(C'\fR; check \f(CW\*(C`wait\*(C'\fR for signal safety.
300.Sh "Out-of-source builds"
301.IX Subsection "Out-of-source builds"
302This was done for 5.6.0, but needs reworking for 5.7.x
303.Sh "\s-1POSIX\s0 realtime support"
304.IX Subsection "POSIX realtime support"
305\&\s-1POSIX\s0 1003.1 1996 Edition support\*(--realtime stuff: \s-1POSIX\s0 semaphores,
306message queues, shared memory, realtime clocks, timers, signals (the
307metaconfig units mostly already exist for these)
308.Sh "\s-1UNIX98\s0 support"
309.IX Subsection "UNIX98 support"
310Reader-writer locks, realtime/asynchronous \s-1IO\s0
311.Sh "IPv6 Support"
312.IX Subsection "IPv6 Support"
313There are non-core modules, such as \f(CW\*(C`Socket6\*(C'\fR, but these will need
314integrating when IPv6 actually starts to really happen. See \s-1RFC\s0 2292
315and \s-1RFC\s0 2553.
316.Sh "Long double conversion"
317.IX Subsection "Long double conversion"
318Floating point formatting is still causing some weird test failures.
319.Sh "Locales"
320.IX Subsection "Locales"
321Locales and Unicode interact with each other in unpleasant ways.
322One possible solution would be to adopt/support \s-1ICU:\s0
323.PP
324.Vb 1
325\& http://oss.software.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/icu/project/
326.Ve
327.Sh "Arithmetic on non-Arabic numerals"
328.IX Subsection "Arithmetic on non-Arabic numerals"
329\&\f(CW\*(C`[1234567890]\*(C'\fR aren't the only numerals any more.
330.Sh "\s-1POSIX\s0 Unicode character classes"
331.IX Subsection "POSIX Unicode character classes"
332(\f(CW\*(C`[=a=]\*(C'\fR for equivalence classes, \f(CW\*(C`[.ch.]\*(C'\fR for collation.)
333These are dependent on Unicode normalization and collation.
334.Sh "Factoring out common suffices/prefices in regexps (trie optimization)"
335.IX Subsection "Factoring out common suffices/prefices in regexps (trie optimization)"
336Currently, the user has to optimize \f(CW\*(C`foo|far\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`foo|goo\*(C'\fR into
337\&\f(CW\*(C`f(?:oo|ar)\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`[fg]oo\*(C'\fR by hand; this could be done automatically.
338.Sh "Security audit shipped utilities"
339.IX Subsection "Security audit shipped utilities"
340All the code we ship with Perl needs to be sensible about temporary file
341handling, locking, input validation, and so on.
342.Sh "Sort out the uid-setting mess"
343.IX Subsection "Sort out the uid-setting mess"
344Currently there are several problems with the setting of uids ($<, $>
345for the real and effective uids). Firstly, what exactly \fIsetuid()\fR call
346gets invoked in which platform is simply a big mess that needs to be
347untangled. Secondly, the effects are apparently not standard across
348platforms, (if you first set $< and then $>, or vice versa, being
349uid == euid == zero, or just euid == zero, or as a normal user, what are
350the results?). The test suite not (usually) being run as root means
351that these things do not get much testing. Thirdly, there's quite
352often a third uid called saved uid, and Perl has no knowledge of that
353feature in any way. (If one has the saved uid of zero, one can get
354back any real and effective uids.) As an example, to change also the
355saved uid, one needs to set the real and effective uids \fBtwice\fR\-\- in
356most systems, that is: in HP-UX that doesn't seem to work.
357.Sh "Custom opcodes"
358.IX Subsection "Custom opcodes"
359Have a way to introduce user-defined opcodes without the subroutine call
360overhead of an \s-1XSUB\s0; the user should be able to create \s-1PP\s0 code. Simon
361Cozens has some ideas on this.
362.Sh "\s-1DLL\s0 Versioning"
363.IX Subsection "DLL Versioning"
364Windows needs a way to know what version of an \s-1XS\s0 or \f(CW\*(C`libperl\*(C'\fR \s-1DLL\s0 it's
365loading.
366.Sh "Introduce @( and @)"
367.IX Subsection "Introduce @( and @)"
368\&\f(CW$(\fR may return \*(L"foo bar baz\*(R". Unfortunately, since groups can
369theoretically have spaces in their names, this could be one, two or
370three groups.
371.Sh "Floating point handling"
372.IX Subsection "Floating point handling"
373\&\f(CW\*(C`NaN\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`inf\*(C'\fR support is particularly troublesome.
374(\fIfp_classify()\fR, \fIfp_class()\fR, \fIfp_class_d()\fR, \fIclass()\fR, \fIisinf()\fR,
375\&\fIisfinite()\fR, \fIfinite()\fR, \fIisnormal()\fR, \fIunordered()\fR, <ieeefp.h>,
376<fp_class.h> (there are metaconfig units for all these) (I think),
377\&\fIfp_setmask()\fR, \fIfp_getmask()\fR, \fIfp_setround()\fR, \fIfp_getround()\fR
378(no metaconfig units yet for these). Don't forget \fIfinitel()\fR, \fIfp_classl()\fR,
379\&\fIfp_class_l()\fR, (yes, both do, unfortunately, exist), and \fIunorderedl()\fR.)
380.PP
381As of Perl 5.6.1, there is a Perl macro, \fIPerl_isnan()\fR.
382.Sh "\s-1IV/UV\s0 preservation"
383.IX Subsection "IV/UV preservation"
384Nicholas Clark has done a lot of work on this, but work is continuing.
385\&\f(CW\*(C`+\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`\-\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`*\*(C'\fR work, but guards need to be in place for \f(CW\*(C`%\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`/\*(C'\fR,
386\&\f(CW\*(C`&\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`oct\*(C'\fR, \f(CW\*(C`hex\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`pack\*(C'\fR.
387.Sh "Replace pod2html with something using Pod::Parser"
388.IX Subsection "Replace pod2html with something using Pod::Parser"
389The \s-1CPAN\s0 module \f(CW\*(C`Marek::Pod::Html\*(C'\fR may be a more suitable basis for a
390\&\f(CW\*(C`pod2html\*(C'\fR converter; the current one duplicates the functionality
391abstracted in \f(CW\*(C`Pod::Parser\*(C'\fR, which makes updating the \s-1POD\s0 language
392difficult.
393.Sh "Automate module testing on \s-1CPAN\s0"
394.IX Subsection "Automate module testing on CPAN"
395When a new Perl is being beta tested, porters have to manually grab
396their favourite \s-1CPAN\s0 modules and test them \- this should be done
397automatically.
398.Sh "sendmsg and recvmsg"
399.IX Subsection "sendmsg and recvmsg"
400We have all the other \s-1BSD\s0 socket functions but these. There are
401metaconfig units for these functions which can be added. To avoid these
402being new opcodes, a solution similar to the way \f(CW\*(C`sockatmark\*(C'\fR was added
403would be preferable. (Autoload the \f(CW\*(C`IO::whatever\*(C'\fR module.)
404.Sh "Rewrite perlre documentation"
405.IX Subsection "Rewrite perlre documentation"
406The new-style patterns need full documentation, and the whole document
407needs to be a lot clearer.
408.Sh "Convert example code to IO::Handle filehandles"
409.IX Subsection "Convert example code to IO::Handle filehandles"
410.Sh "Document Win32 choices"
411.IX Subsection "Document Win32 choices"
412.Sh "Check new modules"
413.IX Subsection "Check new modules"
414.Sh "Make roffitall find pods and libs itself"
415.IX Subsection "Make roffitall find pods and libs itself"
416Simon Cozens has done some work on this but it needs a rethink.
417.SH "To do at some point"
418.IX Header "To do at some point"
419These are ideas that have been regularly tossed around, that most
420people believe should be done maybe during 5.8.x
421.Sh "Remove regular expression recursion"
422.IX Subsection "Remove regular expression recursion"
423Because the regular expression engine is recursive, badly designed
424expressions can lead to lots of recursion filling up the stack. Ilya
425claims that it is easy to convert the engine to being iterative, but
426this has still not yet been done. There may be a regular expression
427engine hit squad meeting at \s-1TPC5\s0.
428.Sh "Memory leaks after failed eval"
429.IX Subsection "Memory leaks after failed eval"
430Perl will leak memory if you \f(CW\*(C`eval "hlagh hlagh hlagh hlagh"\*(C'\fR. This is
431partially because it attempts to build up an op tree for that code and
432doesn't properly free it. The same goes for non-syntactically-correct
433regular expressions. Hugo looked into this, but decided it needed a
434mark-and-sweep \s-1GC\s0 implementation.
435.PP
436Alan notes that: The basic idea was to extend the parser token stack
437(\f(CW\*(C`YYSTYPE\*(C'\fR) to include a type field so we knew what sort of thing each
438element of the stack was. The \fIperly.c\fR code would then have to be
439postprocessed to record the type of each entry on the stack as it was
440created, and the parser patched so that it could unroll the stack
441properly on error.
442.PP
443This is possible to do, but would be pretty messy to implement, as it
444would rely on even more sed hackery in \fIperly.fixer\fR.
445.Sh "bitfields in pack"
446.IX Subsection "bitfields in pack"
447.Sh "Cross compilation"
448.IX Subsection "Cross compilation"
449Make Perl buildable with a cross\-compiler. This will play havoc with
450Configure, which needs to know how the target system will respond to
451its tests; maybe \f(CW\*(C`microperl\*(C'\fR will be a good starting point here.
452(Indeed, Bart Schuller reports that he compiled up \f(CW\*(C`microperl\*(C'\fR for
453the Agenda \s-1PDA\s0 and it works fine.) A really big spanner in the works
454is the bootstrapping build process of Perl: if the filesystem the
455target systems sees is not the same what the build host sees, various
456input, output, and (Perl) library files need to be copied back and forth.
457.PP
458As of 5.8.0 Configure mostly works for cross-compilation
459(used successfully for iPAQ Linux), miniperl gets built,
460but then building DynaLoader (and other extensions) fails
461since MakeMaker knows nothing of cross\-compilation.
462(See INSTALL/Cross\-compilation for the state of things.)
463.Sh "Perl preprocessor / macros"
464.IX Subsection "Perl preprocessor / macros"
465Source filters help with this, but do not get us all the way. For
466instance, it should be possible to implement the \f(CW\*(C`??\*(C'\fR operator somehow;
467source filters don't (quite) cut it.
468.Sh "Perl lexer in Perl"
469.IX Subsection "Perl lexer in Perl"
470Damian Conway is planning to work on this, but it hasn't happened yet.
471.Sh "Using \s-1POSIX\s0 calls internally"
472.IX Subsection "Using POSIX calls internally"
473When faced with a \s-1BSD\s0 vs. SysV \-style interface to some library or
474system function, perl's roots show in that it typically prefers the \s-1BSD\s0
475interface (but falls back to the SysV one). One example is \fIgetpgrp()\fR.
476Other examples include \f(CW\*(C`memcpy\*(C'\fR vs. \f(CW\*(C`bcopy\*(C'\fR. There are others, mostly in
477\&\fIpp_sys.c\fR.
478.PP
479Mostly, this item is a suggestion for which way to start a journey into
480an \f(CW\*(C`#ifdef\*(C'\fR forest. It is not primarily a suggestion to eliminate any of
481the \f(CW\*(C`#ifdef\*(C'\fR forests.
482.PP
483\&\s-1POSIX\s0 calls are perhaps more likely to be portable to unexpected
484architectures. They are also perhaps more likely to be actively
485maintained by a current vendor. They are also perhaps more likely to be
486available in thread-safe versions, if appropriate.
487.Sh "\-i rename file when changed"
488.IX Subsection "-i rename file when changed"
489It's only necessary to rename a file when inplace editing when the file
490has changed. Detecting a change is perhaps the difficult bit.
491.Sh "All \s-1ARGV\s0 input should act like <>"
492.IX Subsection "All ARGV input should act like <>"
493eg \f(CW\*(C`read(ARGV, ...)\*(C'\fR doesn't currently read across multiple files.
494.Sh "Support for rerunning debugger"
495.IX Subsection "Support for rerunning debugger"
496There should be a way of restarting the debugger on demand.
497.Sh "Test Suite for the Debugger"
498.IX Subsection "Test Suite for the Debugger"
499The debugger is a complex piece of software and fixing something
500here may inadvertently break something else over there. To tame
501this chaotic behaviour, a test suite is necessary.
502.Sh "my sub foo { }"
503.IX Subsection "my sub foo { }"
504The basic principle is sound, but there are problems with the semantics
505of self-referential and mutually referential lexical subs: how to
506declare the subs?
507.Sh "One-pass global destruction"
508.IX Subsection "One-pass global destruction"
509Sweeping away all the allocated memory in one go is a laudable goal, but
510it's difficult and in most cases, it's easier to let the memory get
511freed by exiting.
512.Sh "Rewrite regexp parser"
513.IX Subsection "Rewrite regexp parser"
514There has been talk recently of rewriting the regular expression parser
515to produce an optree instead of a chain of opcodes; it's unclear whether
516or not this would be a win.
517.Sh "Cache recently used regexps"
518.IX Subsection "Cache recently used regexps"
519This is to speed up
520.PP
521.Vb 3
522\& for my $re (@regexps) {
523\& $matched++ if /$re/
524\& }
525.Ve
526.PP
527\&\f(CW\*(C`qr//\*(C'\fR already gives us a way of saving compiled regexps, but it should
528be done automatically.
529.Sh "Cross-compilation support"
530.IX Subsection "Cross-compilation support"
531Bart Schuller reports that using \f(CW\*(C`microperl\*(C'\fR and a cross\-compiler, he
532got Perl working on the Agenda \s-1PDA\s0. However, one cannot build a full
533Perl because Configure needs to get the results for the target platform,
534for the host.
535.Sh "Bit-shifting bitvectors"
536.IX Subsection "Bit-shifting bitvectors"
537Given:
538.PP
539.Vb 1
540\& vec($v, 1000, 1) = 1;
541.Ve
542.PP
543One should be able to do
544.PP
545.Vb 1
546\& $v <<= 1;
547.Ve
548.PP
549and have the 999'th bit set.
550.PP
551Currently if you try with shift bitvectors you shift the \s-1NV/UV\s0, instead
552of the bits in the \s-1PV\s0. Not very logical.
553.Sh "debugger pragma"
554.IX Subsection "debugger pragma"
555The debugger is implemented in Perl in \fIperl5db.pl\fR; turning it into a
556pragma should be easy, but making it work lexically might be more
557difficult. Fiddling with \f(CW$^P\fR would be necessary.
558.Sh "use less pragma"
559.IX Subsection "use less pragma"
560Identify areas where speed/memory tradeoffs can be made and have a hint
561to switch between them.
562.Sh "switch structures"
563.IX Subsection "switch structures"
564Although we have \f(CW\*(C`Switch.pm\*(C'\fR in core, Larry points to the dormant
565\&\f(CW\*(C`nswitch\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`cswitch\*(C'\fR ops in \fIpp.c\fR; using these opcodes would be
566much faster.
567.Sh "Cache eval tree"
568.IX Subsection "Cache eval tree"
569.Sh "rcatmaybe"
570.IX Subsection "rcatmaybe"
571.Sh "Shrink opcode tables"
572.IX Subsection "Shrink opcode tables"
573.ie n .Sh "Optimize away @_"
574.el .Sh "Optimize away \f(CW@_\fP"
575.IX Subsection "Optimize away @_"
576Look at the \*(L"reification\*(R" code in \f(CW\*(C`av.c\*(C'\fR
577.Sh "Prototypes versus indirect objects"
578.IX Subsection "Prototypes versus indirect objects"
579Currently, indirect object syntax bypasses prototype checks.
580.Sh "Install \s-1HTML\s0"
581.IX Subsection "Install HTML"
582\&\s-1HTML\s0 versions of the documentation need to be installed by default; a
583call to \f(CW\*(C`installhtml\*(C'\fR from \f(CW\*(C`installperl\*(C'\fR may be all that's necessary.
584.Sh "Prototype method calls"
585.IX Subsection "Prototype method calls"
586.Sh "Return context prototype declarations"
587.IX Subsection "Return context prototype declarations"
588.Sh "magic_setisa"
589.IX Subsection "magic_setisa"
590.Sh "Garbage collection"
591.IX Subsection "Garbage collection"
592There have been persistent mumblings about putting a mark-and-sweep
593garbage detector into Perl; Alan Burlison has some ideas about this.
594.Sh "\s-1IO\s0 tutorial"
595.IX Subsection "IO tutorial"
596Mark-Jason Dominus has the beginnings of one of these.
597.Sh "Rewrite perldoc"
598.IX Subsection "Rewrite perldoc"
599There are a few suggestions for what to do with \f(CW\*(C`perldoc\*(C'\fR: maybe a
600full-text search, an index function, locating pages on a particular
601high-level subject, and so on.
602.Sh "Install .3p manpages"
603.IX Subsection "Install .3p manpages"
604This is a bone of contention; we can create \f(CW\*(C`.3p\*(C'\fR manpages for each
605built-in function, but should we install them by default? Tcl does this,
606and it clutters up \f(CW\*(C`apropos\*(C'\fR.
607.Sh "Unicode tutorial"
608.IX Subsection "Unicode tutorial"
609Simon Cozens promises to do this before he gets old.
610.Sh "Update \s-1POSIX\s0.pm for 1003.1\-2"
611.IX Subsection "Update POSIX.pm for 1003.1-2"
612.Sh "Retargetable installation"
613.IX Subsection "Retargetable installation"
614Allow \f(CW@INC\fR to be changed after Perl is built.
615.Sh "\s-1POSIX\s0 emulation on non-POSIX systems"
616.IX Subsection "POSIX emulation on non-POSIX systems"
617Make \f(CW\*(C`POSIX.pm\*(C'\fR behave as POSIXly as possible everywhere, meaning we
618have to implement \s-1POSIX\s0 equivalents for some functions if necessary.
619.Sh "Rename Win32 headers"
620.IX Subsection "Rename Win32 headers"
621.Sh "Finish off lvalue functions"
622.IX Subsection "Finish off lvalue functions"
623They don't work in the debugger, and they don't work for list or hash
624slices.
625.Sh "Update sprintf documentation"
626.IX Subsection "Update sprintf documentation"
627Hugo van der Sanden plans to look at this.
628.Sh "Use fchown/fchmod internally"
629.IX Subsection "Use fchown/fchmod internally"
630This has been done in places, but needs a thorough code review.
631Also fchdir is available in some platforms.
632.Sh "Make v\-strings overloaded objects"
633.IX Subsection "Make v-strings overloaded objects"
634Instead of having to guess whether a string is a v\-string and thus
635needs to be displayed with \f(CW%vd\fR, make v\-strings (readonly) objects
636(class \*(L"vstring\*(R"?) with a stringify overload.
637.Sh "Allow restricted hash assignment"
638.IX Subsection "Allow restricted hash assignment"
639Currently you're not allowed to assign to a restricted hash at all,
640even with the same keys.
641.PP
642.Vb 1
643\& %restricted = (foo => 42); # error
644.Ve
645.PP
646This should be allowed if the new keyset is a subset of the old
647keyset. May require more extra code than we'd like in pp_aassign.
648.Sh "Should overload be inheritable?"
649.IX Subsection "Should overload be inheritable?"
650Should overload be 'contagious' through \f(CW@ISA\fR so that derived classes
651would inherit their base classes' overload definitions? What to do
652in case of overload conflicts?
653.Sh "Taint rethink"
654.IX Subsection "Taint rethink"
655Should taint be stopped from affecting control flow, if ($tainted)?
656Should tainted symbolic method calls and subref calls be stopped?
657(Look at Ruby's \f(CW$SAFE\fR levels for inspiration?)
658.SH "Vague ideas"
659.IX Header "Vague ideas"
660Ideas which have been discussed, and which may or may not happen.
661.Sh "\fIref()\fP in list context"
662.IX Subsection "ref() in list context"
663It's unclear what this should do or how to do it without breaking old
664code.
665.Sh "Make tr/// return histogram of characters in list context"
666.IX Subsection "Make tr/// return histogram of characters in list context"
667There is a patch for this, but it may require Unicodification.
668.Sh "Compile to real threaded code"
669.IX Subsection "Compile to real threaded code"
670.Sh "Structured types"
671.IX Subsection "Structured types"
672.ie n .Sh "Modifiable $1 et al."
673.el .Sh "Modifiable \f(CW$1\fP et al."
674.IX Subsection "Modifiable $1 et al."
675.Vb 2
676\& ($x = "elephant") =~ /e(ph)/;
677\& $1 = "g"; # $x = "elegant"
678.Ve
679.PP
680What happens if there are multiple (nested?) brackets? What if the
681string changes between the match and the assignment?
682.Sh "Procedural interfaces for IO::*, etc."
683.IX Subsection "Procedural interfaces for IO::*, etc."
684Some core modules have been accused of being overly\-OO. Adding
685procedural interfaces could demystify them.
686.Sh "\s-1RPC\s0 modules"
687.IX Subsection "RPC modules"
688.Sh "Attach/detach debugger from running program"
689.IX Subsection "Attach/detach debugger from running program"
690With \f(CW\*(C`gdb\*(C'\fR, you can attach the debugger to a running program if you
691pass the process \s-1ID\s0. It would be good to do this with the Perl debugger
692on a running Perl program, although I'm not sure how it would be done.
693.Sh "GUI::Native"
694.IX Subsection "GUI::Native"
695A non-core module that would use \*(L"native\*(R" \s-1GUI\s0 to create graphical
696applications.
697.Sh "foreach(reverse ...)"
698.IX Subsection "foreach(reverse ...)"
699Currently
700.PP
701.Vb 1
702\& foreach (reverse @_) { ... }
703.Ve
704.PP
705puts \f(CW@_\fR on the stack, reverses it putting the reversed version on the
706stack, then iterates forwards. Instead, it could be special-cased to put
707\&\f(CW@_\fR on the stack then iterate backwards.
708.Sh "Constant function cache"
709.IX Subsection "Constant function cache"
710.Sh "Approximate regular expression matching"
711.IX Subsection "Approximate regular expression matching"
712.SH "Ongoing"
713.IX Header "Ongoing"
714These items \fBalways\fR need doing:
715.Sh "Update guts documentation"
716.IX Subsection "Update guts documentation"
717Simon Cozens tries to do this when possible, and contributions to the
718\&\f(CW\*(C`perlapi\*(C'\fR documentation is welcome.
719.Sh "Add more tests"
720.IX Subsection "Add more tests"
721Michael Schwern will donate \f(CW$500\fR to Yet Another Society when all core
722modules have tests.
723.Sh "Update auxiliary tools"
724.IX Subsection "Update auxiliary tools"
725The code we ship with Perl should look like good Perl 5.
726.Sh "Create debugging macros"
727.IX Subsection "Create debugging macros"
728Debugging macros (like printsv, dump) can make debugging perl inside a
729C debugger much easier. A good set for gdb comes with mod_perl.
730Something similar should be distributed with perl.
731.PP
732The proper way to do this is to use and extend Devel::DebugInit.
733Devel::DebugInit also needs to be extended to support threads.
734.PP
735See p5p archives for late May/early June 2001 for a recent discussion
736on this topic.
737.Sh "truncate to the people"
738.IX Subsection "truncate to the people"
739One can emulate \fIftruncate()\fR using F_FREESP and F_CHSIZ fcntls
740(see the \s-1UNIX\s0 \s-1FAQ\s0 for details). This needs to go somewhere near
741pp_sys.\fIc:pp_truncate()\fR.
742.PP
743One can emulate \fItruncate()\fR easily if one has \fIftruncate()\fR.
744This emulation should also go near pp_sys.\fIpp_truncate()\fR.
745.Sh "Unicode in Filenames"
746.IX Subsection "Unicode in Filenames"
747chdir, chmod, chown, chroot, exec, glob, link, lstat, mkdir, open,
748opendir, qx, readdir, readlink, rename, rmdir, stat, symlink, sysopen,
749system, truncate, unlink, utime. All these could potentially accept
750Unicode filenames either as input or output (and in the case of system
751and qx Unicode in general, as input or output to/from the shell).
752Whether a filesystem \- an operating system pair understands Unicode in
753filenames varies.
754.PP
755Known combinations that have some level of understanding include
756Microsoft \s-1NTFS\s0, Apple \s-1HFS+\s0 (In Mac \s-1OS\s0 9 and X) and Apple \s-1UFS\s0 (in Mac
757\&\s-1OS\s0 X), \s-1NFS\s0 v4 is rumored to be Unicode, and of course Plan 9. How to
758create Unicode filenames, what forms of Unicode are accepted and used
759(\s-1UCS\-2\s0, \s-1UTF\-16\s0, \s-1UTF\-8\s0), what (if any) is the normalization form used,
760and so on, varies. Finding the right level of interfacing to Perl
761requires some thought. Remember that an \s-1OS\s0 does not implicate a
762filesystem.
763.PP
764Note that in Windows the \-C command line flag already does quite
765a bit of the above (but even there the support is not complete:
766for example the exec/spawn are not Unicode\-aware) by turning on
767the so-called \*(L"wide \s-1API\s0 support\*(R".
768.SH "Recently done things"
769.IX Header "Recently done things"
770These are things which have been on the todo lists in previous releases
771but have recently been completed.
772.Sh "Alternative \s-1RE\s0 syntax module"
773.IX Subsection "Alternative RE syntax module"
774The \f(CW\*(C`Regexp::English\*(C'\fR module, available from the \s-1CPAN\s0, provides this:
775.PP
776.Vb 10
777\& my $re = Regexp::English
778\& -> start_of_line
779\& -> literal('Flippers')
780\& -> literal(':')
781\& -> optional
782\& -> whitespace_char
783\& -> end
784\& -> remember
785\& -> multiple
786\& -> digit;
787.Ve
788.PP
789.Vb 1
790\& /$re/;
791.Ve
792.Sh "Safe signal handling"
793.IX Subsection "Safe signal handling"
794A new signal model went into 5.7.1 without much fanfare. Operations and
795\&\f(CW\*(C`malloc\*(C'\fRs are no longer interrupted by signals, which are handled
796between opcodes. This means that \f(CW\*(C`PERL_ASYNC_CHECK\*(C'\fR now actually does
797something. However, there are still a few things that need to be done.
798.Sh "Tie Modules"
799.IX Subsection "Tie Modules"
800Modules which implement arrays in terms of strings, substrings or files
801can be found on the \s-1CPAN\s0.
802.Sh "gettimeofday"
803.IX Subsection "gettimeofday"
804\&\f(CW\*(C`Time::HiRes\*(C'\fR has been integrated into the core.
805.Sh "setitimer and getimiter"
806.IX Subsection "setitimer and getimiter"
807Adding \f(CW\*(C`Time::HiRes\*(C'\fR got us this too.
808.Sh "Testing _\|_DIE_\|_ hook"
809.IX Subsection "Testing __DIE__ hook"
810Tests have been added.
811.Sh "\s-1CPP\s0 equivalent in Perl"
812.IX Subsection "CPP equivalent in Perl"
813A C Yardley will probably have done this by the time you can read this.
814This allows for a generalization of the C constant detection used in
815building \f(CW\*(C`Errno.pm\*(C'\fR.
816.Sh "Explicit switch statements"
817.IX Subsection "Explicit switch statements"
818\&\f(CW\*(C`Switch.pm\*(C'\fR has been integrated into the core to give you all manner of
819\&\f(CW\*(C`switch...case\*(C'\fR semantics.
820.Sh "autocroak"
821.IX Subsection "autocroak"
822This is \f(CW\*(C`Fatal.pm\*(C'\fR.
823.Sh "\s-1UTF/EBCDIC\s0"
824.IX Subsection "UTF/EBCDIC"
825Nick Ing-Simmons has made UTF-EBCDIC (\s-1UTR13\s0) work with Perl.
826.PP
827.Vb 1
828\& EBCDIC? http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr16/
829.Ve
830.Sh "\s-1UTF\s0 Regexes"
831.IX Subsection "UTF Regexes"
832Although there are probably some small bugs to be rooted out, Jarkko
833Hietaniemi has made regular expressions polymorphic between bytes and
834characters.
835.Sh "perlcc to produce executable"
836.IX Subsection "perlcc to produce executable"
837\&\f(CW\*(C`perlcc\*(C'\fR was recently rewritten, and can now produce standalone
838executables.
839.Sh "\s-1END\s0 blocks saved in compiled output"
840.IX Subsection "END blocks saved in compiled output"
841.Sh "Secure temporary file module"
842.IX Subsection "Secure temporary file module"
843Tim Jenness' \f(CW\*(C`File::Temp\*(C'\fR is now in core.
844.Sh "Integrate Time::HiRes"
845.IX Subsection "Integrate Time::HiRes"
846This module is now part of core.
847.Sh "Turn Cwd into \s-1XS\s0"
848.IX Subsection "Turn Cwd into XS"
849Benjamin Sugars has done this.
850.Sh "Mmap for input"
851.IX Subsection "Mmap for input"
852Nick Ing\-Simmons' \f(CW\*(C`perlio\*(C'\fR supports an \f(CW\*(C`mmap\*(C'\fR \s-1IO\s0 method.
853.Sh "Byte to/from \s-1UTF8\s0 and \s-1UTF8\s0 to/from local conversion"
854.IX Subsection "Byte to/from UTF8 and UTF8 to/from local conversion"
855\&\f(CW\*(C`Encode\*(C'\fR provides this.
856.Sh "Add sockatmark support"
857.IX Subsection "Add sockatmark support"
858Added in 5.7.1
859.Sh "Mailing list archives"
860.IX Subsection "Mailing list archives"
861http://lists.perl.org/ , http://archive.develooper.com/
862.Sh "Bug tracking"
863.IX Subsection "Bug tracking"
864Richard Foley has written the bug tracking system at http://bugs.perl.org/
865.Sh "Integrate MacPerl"
866.IX Subsection "Integrate MacPerl"
867Chris Nandor and Matthias Neeracher have integrated the MacPerl changes
868into 5.6.0.
869.ie n .Sh "Web ""nerve center"" for Perl"
870.el .Sh "Web ``nerve center'' for Perl"
871.IX Subsection "Web nerve center for Perl"
872http://use.perl.org/ is what you're looking for.
873.Sh "Regular expression tutorial"
874.IX Subsection "Regular expression tutorial"
875\&\f(CW\*(C`perlretut\*(C'\fR, provided by Mark Kvale.
876.Sh "Debugging Tutorial"
877.IX Subsection "Debugging Tutorial"
878\&\f(CW\*(C`perldebtut\*(C'\fR, written by Richard Foley.
879.Sh "Integrate new modules"
880.IX Subsection "Integrate new modules"
881Jarkko has been integrating madly into 5.7.x
882.Sh "Integrate profiler"
883.IX Subsection "Integrate profiler"
884\&\f(CW\*(C`Devel::DProf\*(C'\fR is now a core module.
885.Sh "Y2K error detection"
886.IX Subsection "Y2K error detection"
887There's a configure option to detect unsafe concatenation with \*(L"19\*(R", and
888a \s-1CPAN\s0 module. (\f(CW\*(C`D'oh::Year\*(C'\fR)
889.Sh "Regular expression debugger"
890.IX Subsection "Regular expression debugger"
891While not part of core, Mark-Jason Dominus has written \f(CW\*(C`Rx\*(C'\fR and has
892also come up with a generalised strategy for regular expression
893debugging.
894.Sh "\s-1POD\s0 checker"
895.IX Subsection "POD checker"
896That's, uh, \fIpodchecker\fR
897.ie n .Sh """Dynamic"" lexicals"
898.el .Sh "``Dynamic'' lexicals"
899.IX Subsection "Dynamic lexicals"
900.Sh "Cache precompiled modules"
901.IX Subsection "Cache precompiled modules"
902.SH "Deprecated Wishes"
903.IX Header "Deprecated Wishes"
904These are items which used to be in the todo file, but have been
905deprecated for some reason.
906.Sh "Loop control on do{}"
907.IX Subsection "Loop control on do{}"
908This would break old code; use \f(CW\*(C`do{{ }}\*(C'\fR instead.
909.Sh "Lexically scoped typeglobs"
910.IX Subsection "Lexically scoped typeglobs"
911Not needed now we have lexical \s-1IO\s0 handles.
912.Sh "format \s-1BOTTOM\s0"
913.IX Subsection "format BOTTOM"
914.Sh "report \s-1HANDLE\s0"
915.IX Subsection "report HANDLE"
916Damian Conway's text formatting modules seem to be the Way To Go.
917.Sh "Generalised \fIwant()\fP/\fIcaller()\fP)"
918.IX Subsection "Generalised want()/caller())"
919Robin Houston's \f(CW\*(C`Want\*(C'\fR module does this.
920.Sh "Named prototypes"
921.IX Subsection "Named prototypes"
922This seems to be delayed until Perl 6.
923.Sh "Built-in globbing"
924.IX Subsection "Built-in globbing"
925The \f(CW\*(C`File::Glob\*(C'\fR module has been used to replace the \f(CW\*(C`glob\*(C'\fR function.
926.Sh "Regression tests for suidperl"
927.IX Subsection "Regression tests for suidperl"
928\&\f(CW\*(C`suidperl\*(C'\fR is deprecated in favour of common sense.
929.Sh "Cached hash values"
930.IX Subsection "Cached hash values"
931We have shared hash keys, which perform the same job.
932.Sh "Add compression modules"
933.IX Subsection "Add compression modules"
934The compression modules are a little heavy; meanwhile, Nick Clark is
935working on experimental pragmata to do transparent decompression on
936input.
937.Sh "Reorganise documentation into tutorials/references"
938.IX Subsection "Reorganise documentation into tutorials/references"
939Could not get consensus on P5P about this.
940.Sh "Remove distinction between functions and operators"
941.IX Subsection "Remove distinction between functions and operators"
942Caution: highly flammable.
943.Sh "Make \s-1XS\s0 easier to use"
944.IX Subsection "Make XS easier to use"
945Use \f(CW\*(C`Inline\*(C'\fR instead, or \s-1SWIG\s0.
946.Sh "Make embedding easier to use"
947.IX Subsection "Make embedding easier to use"
948Use \f(CW\*(C`Inline::CPR\*(C'\fR.
949.Sh "man for perl"
950.IX Subsection "man for perl"
951See the Perl Power Tools. ( http://language.perl.com/ppt/ )
952.ie n .Sh "my $Package::variable"
953.el .Sh "my \f(CW$Package::variable\fP"
954.IX Subsection "my $Package::variable"
955Use \f(CW\*(C`our\*(C'\fR instead.
956.ie n .Sh """or"" tests defined, not truth"
957.el .Sh "``or'' tests defined, not truth"
958.IX Subsection "or tests defined, not truth"
959Suggesting this on P5P \fBwill\fR cause a boring and interminable flamewar.
960.ie n .Sh """class""\-based lexicals"
961.el .Sh "``class''\-based lexicals"
962.IX Subsection "class-based lexicals"
963Use flyweight objects, secure hashes or, dare I say it, pseudo-hashes instead.
964(Or whatever will replace pseudohashes in 5.10.)
965.Sh "byteperl"
966.IX Subsection "byteperl"
967\&\f(CW\*(C`ByteLoader\*(C'\fR covers this.
968.Sh "Lazy evaluation / tail recursion removal"
969.IX Subsection "Lazy evaluation / tail recursion removal"
970\&\f(CW\*(C`List::Util\*(C'\fR gives \fIfirst()\fR (a short-circuiting grep); tail recursion
971removal is done manually, with \f(CW\*(C`goto &whoami;\*(C'\fR. (However, \s-1MJD\s0 has
972found that \f(CW\*(C`goto &whoami\*(C'\fR introduces a performance penalty, so maybe
973there should be a way to do this after all: \f(CW\*(C`sub foo {START: ... goto
974START;\*(C'\fR is better.)
975.ie n .Sh "Make ""use utf8"" the default"
976.el .Sh "Make ``use utf8'' the default"
977.IX Subsection "Make use utf8 the default"
978Because of backward compatibility this is difficult: scripts could not
979contain \fBany legacy eight-bit data\fR (like Latin\-1) anymore, even in
980string literals or pod. Also would introduce a measurable slowdown of
981at least few percentages since all regular expression operations would
982be done in full \s-1UTF\-8\s0. But if you want to try this, add
983\&\-DUSE_UTF8_SCRIPTS to your compilation flags.
984.Sh "Unicode collation and normalization"
985.IX Subsection "Unicode collation and normalization"
986The Unicode::Collate and Unicode::Normalize modules
987by \s-1SADAHIRO\s0 Tomoyuki have been included since 5.8.0.
988.PP
989.Vb 2
990\& Collation? http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr10/
991\& Normalization? http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr15/
992.Ve
993.Sh "pack/unpack tutorial"
994.IX Subsection "pack/unpack tutorial"
995Wolfgang Laun finished what Simon Cozens started.