TODO(1)

NAME
TODO - List of things to be done before Buildtool 1.0 is ready

INTRODUCTION
Before Buildtool 1.0 can be released, there are lots of things to do. This file tries to list some of them (not all), so you can get an idea about where we want to go. If you feel you can help developing some of these items (or providing design ideas), please tell us.

Each module is detailed in its own section. Todo items are in no special order.

COMMON

•   Fix bugs, of course. ;-)

•   Make scripts use the new ‘global’ keyword in bt_sh, to the extent that -w shows no warnings.

•   Verify Cygwin support (mainly test if it works and add support for .exe extensions).

•   Rewrite the testsuite; it's useless as it's now. It should provide regression tests for almost all features provided by Buildtool.

MODULE SPECIFIC

  bt_config

•   Improve shared library support. Currently checks rely on system's name; this is okay for some details but we need checks for compiler specific stuff.

•   More automated checks, for common programs, headers, and libraries. Ideally, a non-trivial program (I have pkgsrc's bootstrap system in mind) has to be converted to see which useful checks are missing, compared to GNU autoconf.

•   Now that bt_sh has the isfunc command, we can implement real support for multiple languages (avoiding the ‘current language’ hack, probably).

  bt_dist

•   An idea: add binary targets like DEB or RPM. I will not add this myself as I have no knowledge of how these files work. If anybody is interested in adding this, contact me.

  bt_doc

•   None planned.

  bt_lint

•   Add more checks, as Buildtool standards are developed.

•   Implement support for other kind of standards (like The GNU Standards), using a variable in the defs file to indicate it.

  bt_logic

•   Just an idea: create compiler wrappers during the configuration stage (like pkgsrc's buildlink does). This may make parsing of options faster as some conditions can be decided during configuration time (i.e., just once), and also may make portability easier (i.e., a different wrapper for each compiler).

  bt_pkgflags

•   Deprecate pkgflags file support (anyone using that? I doubt it). It's starting to look stupid to try to force people use a new format, because pkgconfig files are already doing a good job (when written correctly). Therefore, pkgconfig support needs to be reviewed and improved in this module before this can happen.

  bt_sh

•   None planned.

  bt_swcgen

•   None planned.

  bt_wizard

•   Add more questions to tune the resulting output files.