X-Git-Url: http://repo.macrolet.net/gitweb/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=TODO;h=6c8d83ba9e4b4d7eeb3f90a5a5862e0c5a16d433;hb=HEAD;hp=50e05eff8edb5a96e1dae7c13ffa3ad79489814e;hpb=3a618201c9f2370bb8784217a866d000371769e5;p=sbcl.git diff --git a/TODO b/TODO index 50e05ef..6c8d83b 100644 --- a/TODO +++ b/TODO @@ -1,204 +1,184 @@ -for early 0.8.x: - -* test file reworking - ** ports with less than 256Mb of heap (sparc, ppc and mips) - now don't fail bit-vector.impure-cload.lisp -* faster bootstrapping (both make.sh and slam.sh) - ** added mechanisms for automatically finding dead code, and - used them to remove dead code - ** moved stuff from warm init into cold init where possible - (so that slam.sh will run faster and also just because - ideally everything would be in cold init) - ** profiled and tweaked -* fixed (TRACE :REPORT PROFILE ...) interface to profiling -* more EVAL/EVAL-WHEN/%COMPILE/DEFUN/DEFSTRUCT cleanup: - ** made %COMPILE understand magicality of DEFUN FOO +SBCL TODO +========= + + "There's nothing an agnostic can't do as long as he doesn't know + whether he believes in anything or not." + -- Monty Python. + + "God grant me serenity to accept the code I cannot change, courage + to change the code I can, and wisdom to know the difference." + -- Erik Naggum + + "Accumulation of half-understood design decisions eventually + chokes a program as a water weed chokes a canal. By refactoring + you can ensure that your full understanding of how the program + should be designed is always reflected in the program. As a water + weed quickly spreads its tendrils, partially understood design + decisions quickly spread their effects throughout your program. No + one or two or even ten individual actions will be enough to + eradicate the problem." + -- Martin Fowler, in _Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing + Code_, p. 360 + + "I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then." + -- Bob Seger + + This files is maintained as part of the SBCL distribution, and + describes flying pies and moons on sticks that SBCL developers dream + about. The items are in no particular order. + + The omission of an item is no guarantee that no-one would like it, + just like the inclusion of an item is no guarantee that someone is + actively working on it. + + In addition to this file, there is the BUGS file, and there are also + hundreds of FIXME notes in the sources. (Things marked as KLUDGE are + in general things which are ugly or confusing, but that, for + whatever reason, may stay that way indefinitely.) + +THREADING INTERFACE + + SB-THREAD has some problems: recursivity of a mutex should probably + be a feature of the mutex, and not of the lexical location. Thread + local variables are needed. Sessions and sharing the terminal need + to be thought about. + +PEEPHOLE OPTIMIZER + + Have you ever read SBCL disassembly? + +DEFGLOBAL + + Global lexical variables. Esp. since with threads special variable + accesses is no speed daemon. + +FINISHING EXTERNAL FORMATS + + Byte order marks. Newline conventions. A way to specify an external + format without needing to duplicate code. Fixing the inefficiencies. + +TIMEOUTS + + Asyncronous unwinds suck horribly, but to implement reliable systems + one simply needs timeouts. These should probably be local, since + otherwise they effectively become asynchronous unwinds. Basically, + for any potentially blocking operation there should be a :TIMEOUT + arguent (or a version of the operation that accepts the argument). + +ADVICE/FWRAP + + SBCL has an internal function encapsulation mechanism, and is able to + install breakpoint to function start/end -- this is used to implement + the instrumentation based profiler and tracing. It would be good to + have this as an exported interface, and it would be good if the + SYMBOL-FUNCTION / FDEFINITION confusion was fixed: currently the + latter returns the underlying definition, whereas the first returns + the encapsulation. + +GENERIC FUNCTION TRACING + + This sucks currently. It would also be good to be able to trace + individual methods. + +POLICY MADNESS + + The interactions between various optimization policies are far from + obvious. Someone should figure out how to make this better, and fix + it. One option would be to have just a few (eg. DEBUG, SMALL, + FAST-SAFE, FAST-UNSAFE) "dominant" policies, and expose the rest + as separately declarable optimization toggles. + + MAYBE-INLINE is also nice, but it would be good if someone could + figure out how to get rid of it while retaining the semantics it + provides. Inlining recursive functions is also something to think + about. + + INHIBIT-WARNINGS really needs to go away. + +WINDOWS + + Needs love. + +DARWIN + + Needs love, particularly threads and exceptions/signals. slam.sh is + also broken there. + +FUNCTION NAMES + + We'd like to be able to (SETF %FUNCTION-NAME) on a closure. + +UNDEFINED FUNCTION / VARIABLE RESTARTS + + You know, like Allegro is reputed to have. + +MISC CLEANUPS + + These need to be taken a good look at -- it might be that some of them + are already done, or otherwise no longer relevant.) + + * EVAL/EVAL-WHEN/%COMPILE/DEFUN/DEFSTRUCT cleanups: + ** make %COMPILE understand magicality of DEFUN FOO w.r.t. e.g. preexisting inlineness of FOO - ** used %COMPILE where COMPILE-TOP-LEVEL used to be used - ** removed now-redundant COMPILE-TOP-LEVEL and + ** use %COMPILE where COMPILE-TOP-LEVEL used to be used + ** remove redundant COMPILE-TOP-LEVEL and FUNCTIONAL-KIND=:TOP-LEVEL stuff from the compiler - ** (ideally, but perhaps too hard, given what I've discovered - about the godawful internals of function debug names): - made FUNCTION-NAME logic work on closures, so that - various public functions like CL:PACKAGEP which - are now implemented as closures (because - they're structure slot accessors) won't be so - nasty in the debugger -* outstanding embarrassments + * outstanding embarrassments ** :IGNORE-ERRORS-P cruft in stems-and-flags.lisp-expr. (It's reasonable to support this as a crutch when initially bootstrapping from balky xc hosts with their own idiosyncratic ideas of what merits FAILURE-P, but it's - embarrassing to have to use it when bootstrapping + embarrassing to have to use it when bootstrapping under SBCL!), -* fixups now feasible because of pre7 changes - ** ANSIfied DECLAIM INLINE stuff (deprecating MAYBE-INLINE, - including e.g. on the man page) - ** (maybe) allow INLINE of a recursive function, so that the - body is inlined once -* miscellaneous simple refactoring + * miscellaneous simple refactoring * belated renaming: - ** renamed %PRIMITIVE to %VOP - ** A few hundred things named FN and FCN should be - named FUN (but maybe not while drichards is - working on a Windows port). + ** rename %PRIMITIVE to %VOP + ** A few hundred things named FN should be named FUN * These days ANSI C has inline functions, so.. - ** redid many cpp macros as inline functions: + ** redo many cpp macros as inline functions: HeaderValue, Pointerp, CEILING, ALIGNED_SIZE, GET_FREE_POINTER, SET_FREE_POINTER, GET_GC_TRIGGER, SET_GC_TRIGGER, GetBSP, SetBSP, os_trunc_foo(), os_round_up_foo() - ** removed various avoid-evaluating-C-macro-arg-twice + ** remove various avoid-evaluating-C-macro-arg-twice cruft -* Either get rid of or at least rework the fdefinition/encapsulation - system so that (SYMBOL-FUNCTION 'FOO) is identically equal to - (FDEFINITION 'FOO). -* Make the system sources understandable to the system, so that - searching for sources doesn't error out quite so often - (e.g. in error handlers) - ** provided a suitable readtable for reading in the source - files when necessary, and a mechanism for activating - this readtable rather than the standard one. -* Some work on conditions emitted by the system - ** eliminated COMPILER-WARN and COMPILER-STYLE-WARN, which + * Some work on conditions emitted by the system + ** eliminate COMPILER-WARN and COMPILER-STYLE-WARN, which were simply limited versions of WARN and STYLE-WARN. - ** made STYLE-WARN parallel WARN more closely (by accepting - a condition type, which should be a subtype of - STYLE-WARNING, and initargs, as well as a format - string and format arguments for SIMPLE-STYLE-WARNING. - (WARN can also be used to signal STYLE-WARNINGs, but - STYLE-WARN helps to document the code) - ** eliminated use of INHIBIT-WARNINGS by code emitted by the + ** eliminate use of INHIBIT-WARNINGS by code emitted by the system from user code. - ** caused use of INHIBIT-WARNINGS to signal a STYLE-WARNING. - ** eliminated use of INHIBIT-WARNINGS within the system - ** deprecated INHIBIT-WARNINGS, causing its use to signal a + ** cause use of INHIBIT-WARNINGS to signal a STYLE-WARNING. + ** eliminate use of INHIBIT-WARNINGS within the system + ** deprecate INHIBIT-WARNINGS, causing its use to signal a full WARNING. - ** began work on developing a class hierarchy of conditions + ** begin work on developing a class hierarchy of conditions along semantic lines. - ** annotated conditions emitted by the system to have - references to documentation where applicable, so that - users can easily find an explanation for the - conditions they're seeing. - -======================================================================= -for 0.9: - -[ note: much of the below refers to preparation for merging SB-PCL:FOO - and CL:FOO. However, it turned out to be surprisingly - straightforward to do this notional end goal without doing many of - the preparatory operations. That doesn't mean that plenty of the - goals below aren't worthwhile, but the motivation is somewhat - different. ] - -* refactored in preparation for moving CLOS into cold init and merging - SB-PCL:FOO with CL:FOO (for FOO=CLASS, FOO=CLASS-OF, etc.) - ** systematized support for MOP (more regression tests, maybe) - to try to make sure things don't get mislaid in the - upcoming CLOS restructuring - ** extracted type system (and maybe CLASSOIDs) from SB-KERNEL - into new SB-TYPE package - ** reimplemented GENERIC-FUNCTION as a primitive object (or - maybe made SB-MOP:FUNCALLABLE-STANDARD-OBJECT the - primitive object, and then let GENERIC-FUNCTIONs - inherit from that) instead of structures with - :ALTERNATE-METACLASS and funcallableness. Now - FUNCALLABLE-INSTANCE can go away. (And now the new - funcallable primitive objects need to go into - collections like *FUN-HEADER-WIDETAGS* where - FUNCALLABLE-INSTANCE objects used to be.) - ** reimplemented CONDITIONs as primitive objects instead of - structures with :ALTERNATE-METACLASS. Now (between - this and the change to GENERIC-FUNCTIONs) - DEFSTRUCT :ALTERNATE-METACLASS can go away. - ** (maybe) Now INSTANCE_POINTER_LOWTAG can become just - STRUCTURE_POINTER_LOWTAG, and the concept of - SB-KERNEL:INSTANCE (including INSTANCEP, - (SPECIFIER-TYPE 'INSTANCE), etc.) can go away. -* moved CLOS into cold init, in order to allow CLOS to be used in the - implementation of the core system (e.g. the type system and the - compiler) and in order to support merger of CL:CLASS with - SB-PCL:CLASS -* (maybe) eliminated warm init altogether in favor of cold init -* (maybe, especially if warm init can be eliminated) rationalized - the build process, fixing miscellaneous pre-0.5.0 stuff that's - transparently not the right thing - ** removed separate build directories, now just building in - place with .sbclcoldfasl extensions -* (maybe) more refactoring in preparation for merging SB-PCL:FOO - into CL:FOO: reimplemented type system OO dispatch - (!DEFINE-TYPE-METHOD, etc.) in terms of CLOS OO dispatch -* added some automatic tests for basic binary compatibility, in hopes - that it might be practical to maintain binary compatibility - between minor maintenance releases on the stable branch (but no - promises, sorry, since I've never tried to do this before, and - have no idea how much of a pain this'll be) -======================================================================== -for 1.0 (fixes of lower priority which I'd nonetheless be embarrassed -to leave unfixed in 1.0): -* all too many BUGS entries and FIXMEs -======================================================================= -other priorities, no particular time: - -* bug fixes, especially really annoying bugs (ANSI or not) and any - ANSI bugs (i.e. not just bugs in extras like the debugger or - "declarations are assertions", but violations of the standard) -* better communication with the outside world (scratching WHN's - personal itch): I don't want socket-level stuff so much as I - want RPC-level or higher (CORBA?) interfaces and (possibly - through RPC or CORBA) GUI support -* Especially when ldb is not compiled in, the default "assertion failed" - behaviour in many parts of the runtime is unfriendly. It may - be appropriate to look at some of these and see if they can be - handled in some less abrupt way than aborting -======================================================================= -important but out of scope (for WHN, anyway: Patches from other people -are still welcome!) until after 1.0: - * DYNAMIC-EXTENT - * sadly deteriorated support for ANSI-style block compilation - (static linking of DEFUNs within a single file or - WITH-COMPILATION-UNIT) - * various GC issues (exuberant cut-and-paste coding, - possibly dangerously over-conservative handling - of neighbors of function objects, general GC efficiency) - * package issues other than SB!TYPE, SB!MOP, and dead exported - symbols - * Any systematic effort to fix compiler consistency checks is - out of scope. (However, it still might be possible to - determine that some or all of them are hopelessly stale - and delete them.) -======================================================================= -other known issues with no particular target date: - -bugs listed on the man page - -hundreds of FIXME notes in the sources from WHN - -various other unfinished business from CMU CL and before, marked with - "XX" or "XXX" or "###" or "***" or "???" or "pfw" or "@@@@" or "zzzzz" -or probably also other codes that I haven't noticed or have forgotten. - -(Things marked as KLUDGE are in general things which are ugly or -confusing, but that, for whatever reason, may stay that way -indefinitely.) -======================================================================= -"There's nothing an agnostic can't do as long as he doesn't know -whether he believes in anything or not." - -- Monty Python. - -"God grant me serenity to accept the code I cannot change, courage to -change the code I can, and wisdom to know the difference." - -- Erik Naggum - -"Accumulation of half-understood design decisions eventually chokes a -program as a water weed chokes a canal. By refactoring you can ensure -that your full understanding of how the program should be designed is -always reflected in the program. As a water weed quickly spreads its -tendrils, partially understood design decisions quickly spread their -effects throughout your program. No one or two or even ten individual -actions will be enough to eradicate the problem." - -- Martin Fowler, in _Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing - Code_, p. 360 - -"I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then." - -- Bob Seger + +PCL INTEGRATION + + AKA CLOS in cold init. + +HIGH LEVEL SOCKET INTERFACE + + Something slightly above the level of BSD sockets would be nice. + +RPC INTERFACE + + For talking with other processes. + +CROSS PLATFORM GUI + + Since this is a high priority we're waiting for PHP coders to + offer their help to build a website about this. + +BLOCK COMPILATION + + You know, like CMUCL does. + +(MOSTLY) PARALLEL GC + + Several algorithms exist, even one would be nice. + +INCREMENTAL GC + + For those who need it.