3 If you are ready to start working on any of these TODO items, we
4 appreciate your help; please write to emacs-devel@gnu.org so we can be
5 aware that the problem is being addressed, and talk with you how to do
6 it best. Since Emacs is an FSF-copyrighted package, please be
7 prepared to sign legal papers to transfer the copyright on your work
10 * Small but important fixes needed in existing features:
12 ** revert-buffer should eliminate overlays and the mark.
14 ** Make occur correctly handle matches that span more than one line,
15 as well as overlapping matches.
17 ** Fix the kill/yank treatment of invisible text. At the moment,
18 invisible text is placed in the kill-ring, so that the contents of
19 the ring may not correspond to the text as displayed to the user.
20 It ought to be possible to omit text which is invisible (due to a
21 text-property, overlay, or selective display) from the kill-ring.
23 ** Change the way define-minor-mode handles autoloading.
24 It should not generate :require. Or :require in defcustom
25 should not be recorded in the user's custom-set-variables call.
27 ** The buttons at the top of a custom buffer should not omit
28 variables whose values are currently hidden.
30 ** Clean up the variables in browse-url. Perhaps use a shell command string to
31 specify the browser instead of the mushrooming set of functions.
32 See also ESR's proposal for a BROWSER environment variable
33 <URL:http://www.catb.org/~esr/BROWSER/browse-url.patch>.
35 ** Enhance scroll-bar to handle tall line (similar to line-move).
37 ** Make occur handle multi-line matches cleanly with context.
41 ** Provide user-friendly ways to list all available font families,
42 list fonts, display a font as a sample, etc. [fx is looking at
43 multilingual font selection for Emacs 22.]
45 ** Rewrite the face code to be simpler, clearer and faster.
47 ** Program Enriched mode to read and save in RTF. [Is there actually a
48 decent single definition of RTF? Maybe see info at
49 http://latex2rtf.sourceforge.net/.]
51 ** Implement something better than the current Refill mode. This
52 probably needs some primitive support.
54 ** Add a command to make a "Local Variables" section in the current buffer
55 and/or add a variable to the list.
57 ** Implement primitive and higher-level functions to allow filling
58 properly with variable-pitch faces.
60 ** Implement a smoother vertical scroll facility, one that allows
61 C-v to scroll through a tall image. The primitive operations
62 posn-at-point and posn-at-x-y should now make it doable in elisp.
64 ** Implement intelligent search/replace, going beyond query-replace
65 (see http://graphics.csail.mit.edu/~rcm/chi04.pdf).
67 ** Implement other text formatting properties.
68 *** Footnotes that can appear either in place or at the end of the page.
69 *** text property that says "don't break line in middle of this".
70 Don't break the line between two characters that have the
71 same value of this property.
72 *** Discretionary hyphens that are not visible when they are at end of line.
74 ** Make movemail work with IMAP.
76 ** Internationalize Emacs's messages.
78 ** Install mmc@maruska.dyndns.org's no-flicker change.
80 ** Add a "current vertical pixel level" value that goes with point,
81 so that motion commands can also move through tall images.
82 This value would be to point as window-vscroll is to window-start.
84 ** Address internationalization of symbols names essentially
85 as documentation, e.g. in command names and Custom.
87 ** Make the Lucid menu widget display multilingual text. [This
88 probably needs to be done from actual Emacs buffers, either directly
89 in the menu or by rendering in an unmapped window and copying the
90 pixels. The current code assumes a specific locale; that isn't good
91 enough even if X can render the arbitrary text] [The gtk
92 port now displays multilingual text in menus, but only insofar as
93 Emacs can encode it as utf-8 and gtk can display the result.]
94 Maybe making Lucid menus work like Gtk's (i.e. just force utf-8) is good
95 enough now that Emacs can encode most chars into utf-8.
97 ** Remove the limitation that window and frame widths and heights can
98 be only full columns/lines.
100 * Other features we would like:
102 ** Create a category of errors called `process-error'
103 for some or all errors associated with using subprocesses.
105 ** Maybe reinterpret `parse-error' as a category of errors
106 and put some other errors under it.
108 ** A function to tell you the argument pattern of functions.
110 ** Make byte-compile warn when a doc string is too wide.
112 ** A function to check for customizable options that have been
113 set but not saved, and ask the user whether to save them.
114 This could go in kill-emacs-query-functions, to remind people
115 to save their changes. If the user says yes, show them
116 in a Custom buffer using customize-customized.
118 ** Emacs Lisp mode could put an overlay on the defun for every
119 function that has advice. The overlay could have `after-text' like "
120 [Function has advice]". It might look like
121 (defun foo [Function has advice] (x y)
122 The overlay could also be a button that you could use to view the advice.
126 *** Use MLS for ange-ftp-insert-directory if a list of files is specified.
128 ** Ability to map a key, including all modified-combinations.
129 E.g map mouse-4 to wheel-up as well as M-mouse-4 -> M-wheel-up
130 M-C-mouse-4 -> M-C-wheel-up, H-S-C-M-s-double-mouse-4 ->
131 H-S-C-M-s-double-wheel-up, ...
133 ** Beefed-up syntax-tables.
134 *** recognize multi-character syntactic entities like `begin' and `end'.
135 *** nested string-delimiters (for Postscript's (foo(bar)baz) strings).
136 *** support for infix operators (with precedence).
137 *** support for the $ (paired delimiter) in parse-partial-sexp.
138 *** support for hook-chars whose effect on the parsing-state is specified
139 by elisp code. Thus a char could both close a string and open a comment
140 at the same time and do it in a context-sensitive way.
141 *** ability to add mode-specific data to the partial-parse-state.
143 ** Add a way to convert a keyboard macro to equivalent Lisp code.
145 ** Have a command suggestion help system that recognizes patterns
146 of commands which could be replaced with a simpler common command.
147 It should not make more than one suggestion per 10 minutes.
149 ** Add a way to define input methods by computing them (when first used)
150 from other input methods. Then redefine C-x 8 to use a
151 user-selected input method, with the default being the union of
152 latin-1-prefix and latin-1-postfix.
154 ** Implement a clean way to use different major modes for
155 different parts of a buffer. This could be useful in editing
156 Bison input files, for instance, or other kinds of text
157 where one language is embedded in another language.
159 ** Arrange a way for an input method to return the first character
160 immediately, then replace it later. So that C-s a with
161 input method latin-1-postfix would immediately search for an a.
163 ** Give start-process the ability to direct standard-error
164 output to a different filter.
166 ** Make desktop.el save the "frame configuration" of Emacs (in some
169 ** Give desktop.el a feature to switch between different named
172 ** Replace finder.el with something that generates an Info file
173 which gives the same information through a menu structure. [Dave
174 Love started on this.]
176 ** Add a cpio mode, more or less like tar mode.
178 ** Implement a variant of uncompress.el or jka-compr.el that works with
179 GNU Privacy Guard for encryption. [Code exists but isn't assigned.
180 See the Gnus development sources for assigned code concerning GPG
181 use with mail, which is probably a good start.]
183 ** Save undo information in special temporary files, and reload it
184 when needed for undoing. This could extend undo capacity.
186 ** Change the Windows NT menu code
187 so that it handles the deep_p argument and avoids
188 regenerating the whole menu bar menu tree except
189 when the user tries to use the menubar.
191 This requires the RIT to forward the WM_INITMENU message to
192 the main thread, and not return from that message until the main
193 thread has processed the MENU_BAR_ACTIVATE_EVENT and regenerated
194 the whole menu bar. In the mean time, it should process other messages.
196 ** Get some major packages installed: W3 (development version needs
197 significant work), PSGML. Check the assignments file for other
198 packages which might go in and have been missed.
200 ** Make keymaps a first-class Lisp object (this means a rewrite of
201 keymap.c). What should it do apart from being opaque ?
202 multiple inheritance ? faster where-is ? no more fix_submap_inheritance ?
205 ** Provide real menus on ttys. The MS-DOS implementation can serve as
206 an example how to do part of this.
208 ** Implement popular parts of the rest of the CL functions as compiler
211 ** Make compiler warnings about functions that might be undefined at run time
212 smarter, so that they know which files are required by the file being
213 compiled and don't warn about functions defined in them.
215 ** Highlight rectangles (`mouse-track-rectangle-p' in XEmacs). Already in CUA,
216 but it's a valuable feature worth making more general.
218 ** Support simultaneous tty and X frames.
220 ** Provide MIME support for Rmail using the Gnus MIME library. [Maybe
221 not now feasible, given Gnus maintenance decisions. fx looked at
222 this and can say where some of the problems are.]
224 ** Eliminate the storm of warnings concerning char/unsigned char
225 mismatches that we get with proprietary compilers on various systems.
226 They make it difficult to spot the important warnings.
228 ** Fix anything necessary to use `long long' EMACS_INTs with GCC.
230 ** Split out parts of lisp.h and generate Makefile dependencies
235 ** Allow auto-compression-mode to use zlib calls if zlib is available.
236 [It's required for PNG, so may be linked anyhow.]
238 ** Add a --pristine startup flag which does -q --no-site-file plus
239 ignoring X resources (Doze equivalents?) and most of the
240 environment. What should not be ignored needs consideration.
242 ** Investigate using the language environment (or locale?) to set up
243 more things, such as the default Ispell dictionary, calendar
244 holidays, quoting characters, space after periods and colons, ...
246 ** Improve the GC (generational, incremental). (We may be able to use
247 the Boehm collector.) [See the Boehm-GC branch in CVS for work on
250 ** Check what hooks would help Emacspeak -- see the defadvising in W3.
252 ** Add horizontal scroll bars.
254 ** Provide an optional feature which computes a scroll bar slider's
255 size and its position from lines instead of characters.
257 ** Add support for SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) rendering to
260 ** Allow unknown image types to be rendered via an external program
261 converting them to, say, PBM (in the same way as PostScript?).
263 ** Allow displaying an X window from an external program in a buffer,
264 e.g. to render graphics from Java applets. [gerd and/or wmperry
265 thought this was feasible.]
267 ** Allow images (not just text) in the margin to be mouse-sensitive.
268 (Requires recursing through display properties). Provide some way
269 to simulate mouse-clicks on marginal text without a mouse.
271 ** Implement Lisp functions to determine properly whether a character
272 is displayable (particularly needed in XFree 4, sigh). Use it to
273 define useful glyphs that may be displayed as images or unicodes
274 (with ASCIIfied fallback via latin1-disp). Examples include
275 box-drawing graphics in Custom buffers, W3 rules and tables, and
276 tree displays generally, mode-line mail indicator. [See work done
277 already for Emacs 22 and consult fx.]
279 ** Do something to make rms happy with fx's dynamic loading, and use it
280 to implement things like auto-loaded buffer parsers and database
281 access in cases which need more than Lisp.
283 ** Extend ps-print to deal with multiple font sizes, images, and extra
286 ** Provide portable undumping using mmap (per gerd design).
288 ** Make byte-compile avoid binding an expanded defsubst's args
289 when the body only calls primitives.
291 ** Use the XIE X extension, if available, for image display.
293 ** Make monochrome images display using the foreground and background
294 colors of the applicable faces.
298 ** Optionally make the cursor a little thinner at the end of a line
299 or the end of the buffer.
301 ** Add support for rendering antialiased text, probably using
304 ** Port the conservative stack marking code of Emacs' garbage collector
305 to more systems, so that we can completely get rid of GCPROs.
307 ** Reorder defcustom's in each package so that the more important
308 options come first in the Customize buffers. This could be done by
309 either rearranging the file (since options are shown in the order
310 they appear in the *.el files), or by adding a few :set-after
313 ** Maybe document the features of libraries missing from the manual (or
314 ancillary manuals, including the Lisp manual in some cases).
315 This is not worth doing for all of these packages and we need not
316 aim for completeness, but some may be worth documenting.
318 Here's a list which is probably not complete/correct: align, allout,
319 artist, ansi-color, array, battery, calculator, cdl, cmuscheme,
320 completion, cua, delim-col, dirtrack, double, echistory, elide-head,
321 easymenu, expand, flow-ctrl, format [format-alist],
322 generic/generic-x [various modes], kermit, log-edit, ledit
323 [obsolete?], makesum, midnight [other than in Kill Buffer node],
324 mouse-copy [?], mouse-drag, mouse-sel, net-utils, rcompile,
325 snmp-mode [?], soundex [should be interactive?], strokes [start from
326 the web page], talk, thingatpt [interactive functions?], type-break,
327 vcursor, xscheme, zone-mode [?], mlconvert [?], iso-cvt, iso-swed,
328 swedish, feedmail [?], uce, bruce, gametree, meese, page-ext,
329 refbib, refer, scribe, sgml-mode, spell, texinfo, underline,
330 cmacexp, hideif, mantemp [obsolete?], pcomplete, assoc, xml,
331 cvs-status (should be described in PCL-CVS manual); other progmodes,
332 probably in separate manual.
334 ** Convert the XPM bitmaps to PPM, replace the PBMs with them and scrap
335 the XPMs so that the colour versions work generally. (Requires care
336 with the colour used for the transparent regions.)
338 ** Convenient access to the `values' variable. It would be nice to have an
339 interface that would show you the printed reps of the elements of the
340 list in a menu, let you select one of the values, and put it into some
341 other variable, without changing the value of `values'.
343 ** (Controlled by a flag) make open and close syntax match exactly,
344 i.e. `(' doesn't match `]'.
346 ** Specify parameter ID-FORMAT in all calls to `file-attributes' and
347 `directory-files-and-attributes' where attributes UID or GID are used.
348 Whenever possible, use value 'string.
349 When done, change meaning of default value from 'integer to 'string.
350 If value 'integer is used nowhere, remove the parameter ID-FORMAT from
351 the definition of `file-attributes' and `directory-files-and-attributes'
354 ** Make language-info-alist customizable. Currently a user can customize
355 only the variable `current-language-environment'.
357 ** Improve language environment handling so that Emacs can fit
358 better to a users locale. Currently Emacs uses utf-8 language
359 environment for all utf-8 locales, thus a user in ja_JP.UTF-8 locale
360 are also put in utf-8 lang. env. In such a case, it is
361 better to use Japanese lang. env. but prefer utf-8 coding system.
363 ** Eliminate the current restriction on header printing by ps-print.
364 Currently, a header can contain only single 1-byte charset in
367 ** In ps-print, provide an user friendly interface to specify fonts.
369 ** OpenType font support for various complex scripts (e.g. Devanagari).
370 As X protocal doesn't provide a way to access OpenType Layout Tables
371 in a OpenType font of a server side, we need a way to utilize local
372 fonts (perhaps by directly using the Freetype library or indirectly
375 ** Enhance word boundary detection for such a script that doesn't use
376 space at word boundary (e.g. Thai).
378 ** Implement interface programs with major Japanese conversion server
379 in lib-src so that they can be used from the input method
380 "japanese". Currently, most Japanese users are using external
381 packages (e.g. tamago, anthy) or an input method via XIM.
383 ** Provide the toolbar on ttys. This could map a bit like tmm-menubar
384 for the menubar and buttons could look a bit like those used by customize.
388 ** Replace gmalloc.c with the modified Doug Lea code from the current
389 GNU libc so that the special mmapping of buffers can be removed --
390 that apparently loses under Solaris, at least. [fx has mostly done
393 ** Rewrite make-docfile to be clean and maintainable.
395 ** Add an inferior-comint-minor-mode to capture the common set of operations
396 offered by major modes that offer an associated inferior
397 comint-derived mode. I.e. basically make cmuscheme.el/inf-lisp.el generic.
398 For use by sml-mode, python-mode, tex-mode, scheme-mode, lisp-mode,
399 haskell-mode, tuareg-mode, ...
403 ** a two-char comment-starter whose two chars are symbol constituents will
404 not be noticed if it appears within a word.
406 ** Fix unexelf.c to handle the .data.rel and .data.rel.local
407 sections made by GCC 3.4 on IRIX.
409 ;;; arch-tag: b0a3e40b-726a-457d-9999-ba848321b036