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This file lists future projects and enhancements for gawk. Items are listed
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in roughly the order they will be done for a given release. This file is
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mainly for use by the developer(s) to help keep themselves on track, please
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mainly for use by the developers to help keep themselves on track, please
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don't bug us too much about schedules or what all this really means.
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(An `x' indicates that some progress has been made, but that the feature is
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x Move to autoconf-based configure system.
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x Research awk `fflush' function.
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x Generalize IGNORECASE
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any value makes it work, not just numeric non-zero
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make it apply to *all* string comparisons
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With the 3.0 release, we are acknowledging that awk is not PERL, nor should
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it become PERL. (To paraphrase Dennis Ritchie, "If you want PERL, you
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know where to get it.")
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The focus on the future is thus narrowed to performance and functional
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enhancements, with only minor plans for significant new features.
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x Allow RS to be a regexp.
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RT variable to hold text of record terminator
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RECLEN variable for fixed length records
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Feedback alloca.s changes to FSF
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x Split() with null string as third arg to split up strings
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x Analogously, setting FS="" would split the input record into individual
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x Clean up code by isolating system-specific functions in separate files.
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Undertake significant directory reorganization.
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x Extensive manual cleanup:
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DONE: Move to autoconf-based configure system.
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DONE: Allow RS to be a regexp.
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DONE: RT variable to hold text of record terminator
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DONE: split() with null string as third arg to split up strings
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DONE: Analogously, setting FS="" would split the input record into
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individual characters.
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DONE: Generalize IGNORECASE
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- any value makes it work, not just numeric non-zero
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- make it apply to *all* string comparisons
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DONE: Incorporate newer dfa.c and regex.c
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DONE: Go to POSIX regexps
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DONE: Make regex + dfa less dependant on gawk header file includes
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DONE: Source code formatting cleaned up and regularized
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DONE: Clean up code by isolating system-specific functions in
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DONE: General sub function:
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gensub(pat, sub, global_flag[, line])
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that return the substituted strings and allow \1 etc.
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DONE: Add AWKPATH to ENVIRON if it's not there
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DONE: Undertake significant directory reorganization.
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DONE: Extensive manual cleanup:
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Use of texinfo 2.0 features
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Document posix regexps
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Document all of the above.
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Make regex + dfa less dependant on gawk header file includes
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A PROCINFO array to replace /dev/pid, /dev/user, et al.
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Use mmap to read input files on systems that support it.
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Use a new or improved dfa.
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Integrate GNU NLS support.
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Bring out hooks for NLS support into gawk itself.
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DBM storage of awk arrays. Try to allow multiple dbm packages.
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Use rx instead of regex.
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? Have strftime() pay attention to the value of ENVIRON["TZ"]
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Additional manual features:
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Document posix regexps
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Document use of dbm arrays
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? Add an error messages section to the manual
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? A section on where gawk is bounded
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DBM storage of awk arrays. Try to allow multiple dbm packages
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General sub functions:
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edit(line, pat, sub) and gedit(line, pat, sub)
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that return the substituted strings and allow \1 etc. in the sub
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? Have strftime() pay attention to the value of ENVIRON["TZ"]
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Add chdir and stat built-in functions.
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Add function pointers as valid variable types.
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Add an `ftw' built-in function that takes a function pointer.
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Add a lint check if the return value of a function is used but
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the function did not supply a value.
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Do an optimization pass over parse tree?
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Add variables similar to C's __FILE__ and __LINE__ for better diagnostics
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from within awk programs.
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Add an explicit concatenation operator and assignment version.
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? Add a switch statement
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Add the ability to seek on an open file and retrieve the current file position.
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Add lint checking everywhere, including check for use of builtin vars.
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Make awk '/foo/' files... run at egrep speeds
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Allow OFMT and CONVFMT to be other than a floating point format.
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Allow redefining of builtin functions?
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Make it faster and smaller.
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Make awk '/foo/' files... run at egrep speeds
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Create a gawk compiler?
added
removed
FUTURES
