X-Git-Url: https://pintos-os.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?a=blobdiff_plain;f=TODO;h=0f765330704a428be3dc1582276a55d13b8be9c0;hb=8b69708cde1b56b7abb5fe989863ad87f586a69c;hp=794ed43a4a50ea31999ffd824cf68eca7f03c6b3;hpb=06f9ee45954e5e71fa7f6262dbf37defa1dbf996;p=pspp-builds.git diff --git a/TODO b/TODO index 794ed43a..0f765330 100644 --- a/TODO +++ b/TODO @@ -1,12 +1,10 @@ -Time-stamp: <2004-05-31 13:14:29 blp> +Time-stamp: <2005-03-02 16:08:59 blp> What Ben's working on now. -------------------------- Workspace exhaustion heuristics. -Does SET work correctly? - Update q2c input format description. Rewrite output subsystem, break into multiple processes. @@ -22,20 +20,10 @@ TODO Make valgrind --leak-check=yes --show-reachable=yes work. -Add Boolean type. - Add NOT_REACHED() macro. Add compression to casefiles. -Expressions need to be able to abbreviate function names. XDATE.QUARTER -abbreviates to XDA.QUA, etc. - -The expression tests need tests for XDATE and a few others, see -tests/xforms/expressions.sh comments for details. - -Expressions need random distribution functions. - There needs to be another layer onto the lexer, which should probably be entirely rewritten anyway. The lexer needs to read entire *commands* at a time, not just a *line* at a time. It also needs to support arbitrary putback, @@ -55,11 +43,6 @@ In debug mode hash table code should verify that collisions are reasonably low. Use AFM files instead of Groff font files, and include AFMs for our default fonts with the distribution. -Add libplot output driver. Suggested by Robert S. Maier -: "it produces output in idraw-editable PS format, PCL5 -format, xfig-editable format, Illustrator format,..., and can draw vector -graphics on X11 displays also". - Storage of value labels on disk is inefficient. Invent new data structure. Add an output flag which would cause a page break if a table segment could fit @@ -95,16 +78,6 @@ directory (for data files). (Yuck!) Fix line-too-long problems in PostScript code, instead of covering them up. setlinecap is *not* a proper solution. -Need a better way than MAX_WORKSPACE to detect low-memory conditions. - -When malloc() returns 0, page to disk and free() unnecessary data. - -Remove ccase * argument from procfunc argument to procedure(). - -See if process_active_file() has wider applicability. - -Eliminate private data in struct variable through use of pointers. - Fix som_columns(). Has glob.c been pared down enough? @@ -112,9 +85,6 @@ Has glob.c been pared down enough? Improve interactivity of output by allowing a `commit' function for a page. This will also allow for infinite-length pages. -All the tests need to be looked over. Some of the SET calls don't make sense -any more. - Implement thin single lines, should be pretty easy now. SELECT IF should be moved before other transformations whenever possible. It @@ -129,21 +99,10 @@ it is used (in dfm.c:cmd_begin_data), not after-the-fact detection. Figure out a stylesheet for messages displayed by PSPP: i.e., what quotation marks around filenames, etc. -Data input and data output are currently arranged in reciprocal pairs: input is -done directly, with write_record() or whatever; output is done on a callback -event-driven basis. It would definitely be easier if both could be done on a -direct basis, with read_record() and write_record() routines, with a coroutine -implementation (see Knuth). But I'm not sure that coroutines can be -implemented in ANSI C. This will require some thought. Perhaps 0.4.0 can do -this. - New SET subcommand: OUTPUT. i.e., SET OUTPUT="filename" to send output to that file; SET OUTPUT="filename"(APPEND) to append to that file; SET OUTPUT=DEFAULT to reset everything. There might be a better approach, though--think about it. -HDF export capabilities (http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu). Suggested by Marcus -G. Daniels . - From Zvi Grauer and : 1. design of experiments software, specifically Factorial, response surface @@ -197,149 +156,12 @@ server independently. The statistical procedures would run on (the/a) server and results would be reported through HTML tables viewed with the user's choice of web browsers. Help could be implemented through the browser as well. -Design a plotting API, with scatterplots, line plots, pie charts, barcharts, -Pareto plots, etc., as subclasses of the plot superclass. - HOWTOs ------ -1. How to add an operator for use in PSPP expressions: - -a. Add the operator to the enumerated type at the top of expr.h. If the -operator has arguments (i.e., it's not a terminal) then add it *before* -OP_TERMINAL; otherwise, add it *after* OP_TERMINAL. All these begin with OP_. - -b. If the operator's a terminal then you'll want to design a structure to hold -its content. Add the structure to the union any_node. (You can also reuse one -of the prefab structures, of course.) - -c. Now switch to expr-prs.c--the module for expression parsing. Insert the -operator somewhere in the precedence hierarchy. - -(1) If you're adding a operator that is a function (like ACOS, ABS, etc.) then -add the function to functab in `void init_functab(void)'. Order is not -important here. The first element is the function name, like "ACOS". The -second is the operator enumerator you added in expr.h, like OP_ARCOS. The -third element is the C function to parse the PSPP function. The predefined -functions will probably suit your needs, but if not, you can write your own. -The fourth element is an argument to the parsing function; it's only used -currently by generic_str_func(), which handles a rather general syntax for -functions that return strings; see the comment at the beginning of its code for -details. - -(2) If you're adding an actual operator you'll have to put a function in -between two of the operators there already in functions `exprtype -parse_*(any_node **n)'. Each of these stores the tree for its result into *n, -and returns the result type, or EX_ERROR on error. Be sure to delete all the -allocated memory on error before returning. - -d. Add the operator to the table `op_desc ops[OP_SENTINEL+1]' in expr-prs.c, -which has an entry for every operator. These entries *must* be in the same -order as they are in expr.h. The entries have the form `op(A,B,C,D)'. A is -the name of the operator as it should be printed in a postfix output format. -For example, the addition operator is printed as `plus'. B is a bitmapped set -of flags: - -* Set the 001 bit (OP_VAR_ARGS) if the operator takes a variable number of -arguments. If a function can take, say, two args or three args, but no other -numbers of args, this is a poor way to do it--instead implement the operator as -two separate operators, one with two args, the other with three. (The main -effect of this bit is to cause the number of arguments to be output to the -postfix form so that the expression evaluator can know how many args the -operator takes. It also causes the expression optimizer to calculate the -needed stack height differently, without referencing C.) - -* Set the 002 bit (OP_MIN_ARGS) if the operator can take an optional `dotted -argument' that specified the minimum number of non-SYSMIS arguments in order to -have a non-SYSMIS result. For instance, MIN.3(e1,e2,e3,e4,e5) returns a -non-SYSMIS result only if at least 3 out of 5 of the expressions e1 to e5 are -not missing. - -Minargs are passed in the nonterm_node structure in `arg[]''s elements past -`n'--search expr-prs.c for the words `terrible crock' for an example of this. - -Minargs are output to the postfix form. A default value is output if none was -specified by the user. - -You can use minargs for anything you want--they're not limited to actually -describing a minimum number of valid arguments; that's just what they're most -*commonly* used for. - -* Set the 004 bit (OP_FMT_SPEC) if the operator has an argument that is a -format specifier. (This causes the format specifier to be output to the -postfix representation.) - -Format specs are passed in the nonterm_node structure in the same way as -minargs, except that there are three args, in this order: type, width, # of -decimals--search expr-prs.c for the words `is a crock' for an example of this. - -* Set the 010 bit (OP_ABSORB_MISS) if the operator can *ever* have a result of -other than SYSMIS when given one or more arguments of SYSMIS. Operators -lacking this bit and known to have a SYSMIS argument are short-circuited to -SYSMIS by the expression optimizer. - -* If your operator doesn't fit easily into the existing categories, -congratulations, you get to write lots of code to adjust everything to cope -with this new operator. Are you really sure you want to do that? - -C is the effect the operator has on stack height. Set this to `varies' if the -operator has a variable number of arguments. Otherwise this 1, minus the -number of arguments the operator has. (Since terminals have no arguments, they -have a value of +1 for this; other operators have a value of 0 or less.) - -D is the number of items output to the postfix form after the operator proper. -This is 0, plus 1 if the operator has varargs, plus 1 if the operator has -minargs, plus 3 if the operator has a format spec. Note that minargs/varargs -can't coexist with a format spec on the same operator as currently coded. Some -terminals also have a nonzero value for this but don't fit into the above -categories. - -e. Switch to expr-opt.c. Add code to evaluate_tree() to evaluate the -expression when all arguments are known to be constants. Pseudo-random -functions can't be evaluated even if their arguments are constants. If the -function can be optimized even if its arguments aren't all known constants, add -code to optimize_tree() to do it. - -f. Switch to expr-evl.c. Add code to evaluate_expression() to evaluate the -expression. You must be absolutely certain that the code in evaluate_tree(), -optimize_tree(), and evaluate_expression() will always return the same results, -otherwise users will get inconsistent results, a Bad Thing. You must be -certain that even on boundary conditions users will get identical results, for -instance for the values 0, 1, -1, SYSMIS, or, for string functions, the null -string, 1-char strings, and 255-char strings. - -g. Test the code. Write some test syntax files. Examine the output carefully. - -NOTES ON SEARCH ALGORITHMS --------------------------- - -1. Trees are nicer when you want a sorted table. However, you can always -sort a hash table after you're done adding values. - -2. Brent's variation of Algorithm D is best when the table is fixed: it's -memory-efficient, having small, fixed overhead. It's easier to use -when you know in advance how many entries the table will contain. - -3. Algorithm L is rather slow for a hash algorithm, however it's easy. - -4. Chaining is best in terms of speed; ordered/self-ordering is even -better. - -5. Rehashing is slow. - -6. Might want to decide on an algorithm empirically since there are no -clear mathematical winners in some cases. - -7. gprof? Hey, it works! - MORE NOTES/IDEAS/BUGS --------------------- -The behavior of converting a floating point to an integer when the value of the -float is out of range of the integer type is UNDEFINED! See ANSI 6.2.1.3. - -What should we do for *negative* times in expressions? - Sometimes very wide (or very tall) columns can occur in tables. What is a good way to truncate them? It doesn't seem to cause problems for the ascii or postscript drivers, but it's not good in the general case. Should they be