[glibc.git] / PROJECTS

Open jobs for finishing GNU libc:
---------------------------------
Status: August 1997

If you have time and talent to take over any of the jobs below please
contact <bug-glibc@prep.ai.mit.edu>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
\f
[ 1] Port to new platforms or test current version on formerly supported
     platforms.

**** See http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/porting.html for more details.


[ 2] Test compliance with standards.  If you have access to recent
     standards (IEEE, ISO, ANSI, X/Open, ...) and/or test suites you
     could do some checks as the goal is to be compliant with all
     standards if they do not contradict each other.


[ 3] The IMHO opinion most important task is to write a more complete
     test suite.  We cannot get too many people working on this.  It is
     not difficult to write a test, find a definition of the function
     which I normally can provide, if necessary, and start writing tests
     to test for compliance.  Beside this, take a look at the sources
     and write tests which in total test as many paths of execution as
     possible.


[ 4] Write translations for the GNU libc message for the so far
     unsupported languages.  GNU libc is fully internationalized and
     users can immediately benefit from this.

     Take a look at the matrix in
	ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/ABOUT-NLS
     for the current status (of course better use a mirror of prep).


[ 6] Write `long double' versions of the math functions.  This should be
     done in collaboration with the NetBSD and FreeBSD people.

     The libm is in fact fdlibm (not the same as in Linux libc).

**** Partly done.  But we need someone with numerical experiences for
     the rest.


[ 7] Several math functions have to be written:

     - exp2

     each with float, double, and long double arguments.

     Beside this most of the complex math functions which are new in
     ISO C 9X should be improved.  Writing some of them in assembler is
     useful to exploit the parallelism which often is available.


[ 8] If you enjoy assembler programming (as I do --drepper :-) you might
     be interested in writing optimized versions for some functions.
     Especially the string handling functions can be optimized a lot.

     Take a look at

	Faster String Functions
	Henry Spencer, University of Toronto
	Usenix Winter '92, pp. 419--428

     or just ask.  Currently mostly i?86 and Alpha optimized versions
     exist.  Please ask before working on this to avoid duplicate
     work.


[10] Extend regex and/or rx to work with wide characters and complete
     implementation of character class and collation class handling.

     It is planed to do a complete rewrite.


[11] Write access function for netmasks, bootparams, and automount
     databases for nss_files and nss_db module.
     The functions should be embedded in the nss scheme.  This is not
     hard and not all services must be supported at once.


[13] Several more or less small functions have to be written:

     + tcgetid() and waitid()			from XPG4.2
     + grantpt(), ptsname(), unlockpt()		from XPG4.2

     More information is available on request.


[14] We need to write a library for on-the-fly transformation of streams
     of text.  In fact, this would be a recode-library (you know, GNU recode).
     This is needed in several places in the GNU libc and I already have
     rather concrete plans but so far no possibility to start this.


[15] Cleaning up the header files.  Ideally, each header style should
     follow the "good examples".  Each variable and function should have
     a short description of the function and its parameters.  The prototypes
     should always contain variable names which can help to identify their
     meaning; better than

		int foo __P ((int, int, int, int));

     Blargh!

[16] Write an nss_hesiod module.  The Hesiod daemon from the MIT Athena
     project should be available.  The goal is to avoid the ugly NIS
     emulation interface and contacting the daemon directly.
Commit	Line	Data
0200214b RM	1	Open jobs for finishing GNU libc:
0200214b RM	2	---------------------------------
0413b54c	3	Status: August 1997
0200214b RM	4
	5	If you have time and talent to take over any of the jobs below please
	6	contact <bug-glibc@prep.ai.mit.edu>
	7
	8	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
	9	\f
	10	[ 1] Port to new platforms or test current version on formerly supported
	11	platforms.
	12
9d187dd4 UD	13	**** See http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/porting.html for more details.
9d187dd4 UD	14
0200214b RM	15
	16	[ 2] Test compliance with standards. If you have access to recent
	17	standards (IEEE, ISO, ANSI, X/Open, ...) and/or test suites you
	18	could do some checks as the goal is to be compliant with all
	19	standards if they do not contradict each other.
	20
	21
34b402e5 UD	22	[ 3] The IMHO opinion most important task is to write a more complete
	23	test suite. We cannot get too many people working on this. It is
	24	not difficult to write a test, find a definition of the function
	25	which I normally can provide, if necessary, and start writing tests
	26	to test for compliance. Beside this, take a look at the sources
	27	and write tests which in total test as many paths of execution as
	28	possible.
	29
	30
	31	[ 4] Write translations for the GNU libc message for the so far
0200214b RM	32	unsupported languages. GNU libc is fully internationalized and
	33	users can immediately benefit from this.
	34
	35	Take a look at the matrix in
	36	ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/ABOUT-NLS
	37	for the current status (of course better use a mirror of prep).
	38
	39
34b402e5	40	[ 6] Write `long double' versions of the math functions. This should be
0200214b RM	41	done in collaboration with the NetBSD and FreeBSD people.
	42
	43	The libm is in fact fdlibm (not the same as in Linux libc).
	44
a68b0d31 UD	45	**** Partly done. But we need someone with numerical experiences for
a68b0d31 UD	46	the rest.
78b5ba3e	47
0200214b	48
34b402e5 UD	49	[ 7] Several math functions have to be written:
	50
	51	- exp2
34b402e5	52
9d8067d8	53	each with float, double, and long double arguments.
34b402e5 UD	54
34b402e5 UD	55	Beside this most of the complex math functions which are new in
9d8067d8 UD	56	ISO C 9X should be improved. Writing some of them in assembler is
9d8067d8 UD	57	useful to exploit the parallelism which often is available.
34b402e5 UD	58
	59
	60	[ 8] If you enjoy assembler programming (as I do --drepper :-) you might
0200214b RM	61	be interested in writing optimized versions for some functions.
	62	Especially the string handling functions can be optimized a lot.
	63
	64	Take a look at
	65
	66	Faster String Functions
	67	Henry Spencer, University of Toronto
	68	Usenix Winter '92, pp. 419--428
	69
d41c6f61 UD	70	or just ask. Currently mostly i?86 and Alpha optimized versions
	71	exist. Please ask before working on this to avoid duplicate
	72	work.
0200214b RM	73
0200214b RM	74
993b3242	75	[10] Extend regex and/or rx to work with wide characters and complete
d41c6f61 UD	76	implementation of character class and collation class handling.
	77
	78	It is planed to do a complete rewrite.
0200214b RM	79
0200214b RM	80
993b3242	81	[11] Write access function for netmasks, bootparams, and automount
26761c28	82	databases for nss_files and nss_db module.
78b5ba3e RM	83	The functions should be embedded in the nss scheme. This is not
78b5ba3e RM	84	hard and not all services must be supported at once.
d41c6f61 UD	85
d41c6f61 UD	86
993b3242	87	[13] Several more or less small functions have to be written:
9d187dd4 UD	88
	89	+ tcgetid() and waitid() from XPG4.2
	90	+ grantpt(), ptsname(), unlockpt() from XPG4.2
9d187dd4	91
714a562f	92	More information is available on request.
34b402e5 UD	93
34b402e5 UD	94
993b3242	95	[14] We need to write a library for on-the-fly transformation of streams
34b402e5 UD	96	of text. In fact, this would be a recode-library (you know, GNU recode).
	97	This is needed in several places in the GNU libc and I already have
	98	rather concrete plans but so far no possibility to start this.
26dee9c4 UD	99
	100
	101	[15] Cleaning up the header files. Ideally, each header style should
	102	follow the "good examples". Each variable and function should have
	103	a short description of the function and its parameters. The prototypes
	104	should always contain variable names which can help to identify their
	105	meaning; better than
	106
	107	int foo __P ((int, int, int, int));
	108
	109	Blargh!
0413b54c UD	110
	111	[16] Write an nss_hesiod module. The Hesiod daemon from the MIT Athena
	112	project should be available. The goal is to avoid the ugly NIS
	113	emulation interface and contacting the daemon directly.