3 This is a tasklist/todo list for the 0.13.x development series. We
4 should perhaps name these seies LyX3 as a common name. As I see it
5 there are three major tasks to be done:
7 o Buffer structure rewrite
8 So that it will be easier to expand for
9 new and unknow future features.
10 The main problems with the current structure is that
11 is intended to be viewed by only one window at the
12 time. It also uses characters as the smallest unit, it
13 would probably be better to use something a bit
15 The LyXText class does not necessarily need to change
16 a lot, it could be per-view. However all the special
17 code in it needs to be (re)moved. Also a lot of the
18 functionality needs to be relocated.
20 Should be a compile time switch what gui (toolkit)
21 you wish to use. We are going to support Xforms first,
22 and I am sure that GTK and Qt will follow soon. I also
23 plan to do support for Fl (even a text only toolkit
24 should be possible. ncurses perhaps. Even the
25 lyxserver could be a special case of this: a view with
26 no view being able to coexist with other views or alone)
27 We will do this by providing an interface all the
28 toolkits will need to follow. Functions that the LyX
29 core will expect to be there.
31 When these three is finished, we will probably declare a code freeze
32 and try to release a new version. Hopefully other features has also
33 been added, and none removed.
38 In addition to these there are a lot of small tasks that should be
39 performed, that has no direct bearing on features, but are more geared
42 o always try to use POSIX commands.
43 o switch to use POSIX signals
44 o make as much as possible of the code reentreanant(?)
45 should make it easier to move to threads later. Albeit
46 this is not a huge goal we have some parts of the code
47 that would benefit from threads. (forking is not that
49 o signal slot mechanism
50 We are going to use the signal/slot implementation
51 found in libsigc++. This will hopefully give us better
52 interface, leaner code, typesafe "callbacks". I have
53 been using signal/slots for other projects and it works
55 o other code rewrites to make multiple buffers/windows
56 possible, without too much hassle.
57 - get rid of most of the global variables. In
58 perticular current_view is a problem.
59 - non shared variables in shared structures
60 o make source documentation better. Remember that the better
61 we document LyX internals the easier is it for new
62 developers to begin working on LyX.
65 Some other things related to structure and services in the code:
66 o class FileInfo does way too much, move the unneeded parts to
67 a super class or friends.
68 o a process manager class to handle execution of external
70 - ensure that not too many commands are executed at
72 - ensure that non-compatible commands are running at
74 - to setup file descriptors where communicating with
75 the processes can take place.
76 o pass an inforeceiver around in the object structure.
77 (this instead of passing minibuffers, and lyxerrors.)
81 Also a lot of new features are thought of, only some of these are likely
84 o rewrite of table code. Should probably be written as some
85 kind of an inset. At least get the code out of the kernel.
89 o index support (and multiple indeces support)
91 o tocs for each section
93 o multiple table of contentes
96 o better version control (both document and file wise)
100 o character styles (similar to emph and noun)
101 Will make a lot of small things conceptual instead of
102 specific. Will be alot easier to change the
103 presentation of a filename f.ex. This is actually very
104 important, because this is where the user can't be
105 conceptual in the current version.
106 o macro support. Similar to the math-macro support, but
107 usable in regular text too.
108 o support for abbrevations (static macros)
109 o add a incremental search function.
110 o change the "Find and Replace" to Query Replace.
111 o better/more search functions:
112 - replace & find next
113 - replace & find previous
114 We should perhaps try to make the interface a bit
115 emacs like, that should at least give us the
117 o improved template support.
118 o collapse "New" and "New from Template" into one item.
119 o make lyx recognize some file types (i.e. gzipped) and do
120 the right thing when encountering them.
121 o We should look at all the LyX specific paragraph styles and
122 check carefully that we really need them. We should also try
123 to collapse some of them into singel items (i.e. chapter and
125 o the "LyX-Code" environment should be removed. Add a verbatim
128 This would be a special inset that is line based (no
129 breaking of lines), where tabstops can be set and used.
132 A special insets with some basic drawing
135 o better graphics support
136 I have begun doing something about this. There are
137 several things here that need to be dont. We have alreay
138 decided to use graphicx.sty instead of graphics.sty. This
139 makes several things easier. There is also some work in
140 progress to separate the inset and the creation of the Xpm
141 (Ximages) completely. I imagin this as the InsetGraphics
142 asking a GraphicsCache for a graphics with certain
143 parameters set and get a handle to the finished
144 transformation of the graphics. Hopefully this should make
145 it quite easy for LyX to support several/many graphics
146 formats, both on screen and on hard copy.
148 o rotating and scaling of text
149 o PSTricks (we should be able to support some of this package)
150 o better reference support
152 o better citation support
153 Especially the support for some of the main
154 bibtex supplied styles are needed. (harvard natbib...)
155 A complete support for natbib should perhaps be enough.
156 o improved spellchecker
157 - an ispell class should be made, this should
158 take care of communicating with the ispell
160 o online configuration
161 So that users should not need to edit lyxrc
162 manualy. This has now been "half" done; it is now
163 possible to save the current configuration with the
164 lyx command "preferences-save". We need to add code so
165 that the preferences can be set from inside LyX too.
167 T1-lib font renderer.
168 o better latex code quality
169 This means reading LaTeX books to get an better idea
170 on how things are done in the latex world.
171 o perhaps find better names for the paragraph styles
172 "paragraph" and "subparagraph"
173 o support for filecontents
174 This can make a latex document selfcontained, all the
175 needed graphics can be in the document.
176 o support for optional args to latex commands
177 - For sectioning commands I have an idea on how we can
178 do this: have a popup on RMB to set properties.
182 - url.sty (or better packages)
184 o references to external documents
186 o better babel support
187 - make it possible to tune the language strings
188 - the possibility for several languages in the same
193 o better float support (allow user to make its own floats)
194 o support newtheorem (allow user to make its own thorem like envirs)
195 o a bit more wysiwyg where it is appropiate.
196 - show bullets the way they will be on paper
197 - show a few more characters as they will be on paper
199 o online generation of new paragraph styles (or editing or old
201 o support for inlined sectioning commands (i.e. \paragraph{} )
202 o we should parse the command line ourselves.
203 o remove support for XResources, with multiple toolkits it
204 will be impossible to manage. And they are not very needed
206 o the possebility to collapse parts of the document.
207 (i.e. collapse the contents of a section. Would make moving
208 parts of the document around very easy)
209 o better LyXServer support
210 - perhaps use UNIX sockets instead of pipes
211 - make a decent protocol with return codes.
212 - make it indepentent of the GUI
213 - prob: concurrency (locks)
214 o other packages to support:
216 - keyval (we should not use it directly, but know how
217 to parse options for it.)
223 I am sure others has a list as long as mine...
226 ======================
228 We should also do some work to enhance the support we already have for
229 some packages, I think these are the packages supported by 0.12:
230 - longtable - color (papercolor boxes?)
231 - setspace (should support setting spacing on individual paragraphs)
234 - verbatim - algorithm
235 - inputenc - fancyhdr (we only have _very_ basic support)
239 (I am sure I have forgot some, please fill me in.)
242 ======================
244 If you have other wishes for features, or comments, please let us know.
250 http://freshmeat.net/appindex/1999/11/30/943979651.html
251 http://freshmeat.net/appindex/1999/12/09/944757708.html