usr/src/contrib/gawk-2.15.2/FUTURES

This file lists future projects and enhancements for gawk.  Items are listed
in roughly the order they will be done for a given release.  This file is
mainly for use by the developers to help keep themselves on track, please
don't bug us too much about schedules or what all this really means.

For 2.16
========
David:
        Move to autoconf-based configure system.

        Allow RS to be a regexp.

        RT variable to hold text of record terminator

        RECLEN variable for fixed length records

        Feedback alloca.s changes to FSF

        Extensible hashing in memory of awk arrays

        Split() with null string as third arg to split up strings

        Analogously, setting FS="" would split the input record into individual
        characters.

Arnold:
        Generalize IGNORECASE
                any value makes it work, not just numeric non-zero
                make it apply to *all* string comparisons

        Fix FILENAME to have an initial value of "", not "-"

        Clean up code by isolating system-specific functions in separate files.

        Undertake significant directory reorganization.

        Extensive manual cleanup:
                Use of texinfo 2.0 features
                Lots more examples
                Document all of the above.

In 2.17
=======
David:

        Incorporate newer dfa.c and regex.c (go to POSIX regexps)

        Make regex + dfa less dependant on gawk header file includes

        General sub functions:
                edit(line, pat, sub) and gedit(line, pat, sub)
        that return the substituted strings and allow \1 etc. in the sub string.

Arnold:
        DBM storage of awk arrays. Try to allow multiple dbm packages

        ? Have strftime() pay attention to the value of ENVIRON["TZ"]

        Additional manual features:
                Document posix regexps
                Document use of dbm arrays
                ? Add an error messages section to the manual
                ? A section on where gawk is bounded
                        regex
                        i/o
                        sun fp conversions

For 2.18
========

Arnold:
        Add chdir and stat built-in functions.

        Add function pointers as valid variable types.

        Add an `ftw' built-in function that takes a function pointer.

David:

        Do an optimization pass over parse tree?

For 2.19 or later:
==================
Add variables similar to C's __FILE__ and __LINE__ for better diagnostics
from within awk programs.

Add an explicit concatenation operator and assignment version.

? Add a switch statement

Add the ability to seek on an open file and retrieve the current file position.

Add lint checking everywhere, including check for use of builtin vars.
only in new awk.

"restart" keyword

Add |&

Make    awk '/foo/' files...    run at egrep speeds

Do a reference card

Allow OFMT to be other than a floating point format.

Allow redefining of builtin functions?

Make it faster and smaller.

For 3.x:
========

Create a gawk compiler?

Create a gawk-to-C translator? (or C++??)

Provide awk profiling and debugging.