lyx_mirror/development/attic/lyx3/LyX3-Tasks

-*- text -*-

This is a task list/todo list for future LyX releases. There is 
one (?) major task left to be done:

	o Buffer structure rewrite
		The main problems with the current structure is that
		is intended to be viewed by only one window at the
		time. It also uses characters as the smallest unit, it
		would probably be better to use something a bit
		bigger.
		The LyXText class does not necessarily need to change
		a lot, it could be per-view. However all the special
		code in it needs to be (re)moved. Also a lot of the
		functionality needs to be relocated.

In addition, there are a lot of small tasks that should be performed
that have no direct bearing on features, but are more geared towards 
code quality:

	o always try to use POSIX commands.
	o switch to use POSIX signals
	o make as much as possible of the code reentrant(?)
		should make it easier to move to threads later. Albeit
	        this is not a huge goal we have some parts of the code
	        that would benefit from threads. (forking is not that
	        nice...)
	o signal slot mechanism
	        We are going to use the signal/slot implementation
	        found in libsigc++. This will hopefully give us better
	        interface, leaner code, type-safe "callbacks". I have
		been using signal/slots for other projects and it works
		like a charm.
	o other code rewrites to make multiple buffers/windows
	  possible, without too much hassle.
		- get rid of most of the global variables. In
	          particular current_view is a problem.
		- non-shared variables in shared structures
	o make source documentation better. Remember that the better
	  we document LyX internals, the easier is it for new
	  developers to begin working on LyX.

Some other things related to structure and services in the code:
	o class FileInfo does way too much, move the unneeded parts to
	  a super class or friends.
	o a process manager class to handle execution of external
	  commands.
		- ensure that not too many commands are executed at
		  the same time.
		- ensure that no non-compatible commands are running at
		  the same time.
		- setup file descriptors where communicating with
		  the processes can take place.
	o pass an info receiver around in the object structure.
	  (this instead of passing minibuffers, and lyxerrors.)

================

Also a lot of new features are thought of:

	o rewrite of table code. 
		- colortbl  - multirow
		- hhline    - dcolumn
	o index support (and multiple indices support)
		- multind ?
	o tocs for each section
		- minitoc
	o multiple table of contents
		- multitoc
	o trivlist?
	o better version control (both document and file wise)
		- version.sty
		- cvs
		- svn
		- sccs
	o character styles (similar to emph and noun)
		Will make a lot of small things conceptual instead of
		specific. Will be a lot easier to change the
		presentation of a filename f.ex. This is actually very
		important, because this is where the user can't be
		conceptual in the current version.
	o macro support. Similar to the math-macro support, but
	  usable in regular text too.
	o support for abbreviations (static macros)
	o add an incremental search function.
	o change the "Find and Replace" to Query Replace.
	o better/more search functions:
		- replace & find next
		- replace & find previous
		We should perhaps try to make the interface a bit
		emacs like, that should at least give us the
		features we want.
	o improved template support.
	o collapse "New" and "New from Template" into one item.
	o make lyx recognize some file types (i.e. gzipped) and do
	  the right thing when encountering them.
	o We should look at all the LyX specific paragraph styles and
	  check carefully that we really need them. We should also try
	  to collapse some of them into single items (i.e. chapter and
	  chapter*)
	o the "LyX-Code" environment should be removed. Add a verbatim
	  environment instead.
	o tabbing support
		 This would be a special inset that is line-based (no
	  breaking of lines), where tabstops can be set and used.
	o picture support
		 A special insets with some basic drawing
		 capabilities.
	o rotating and scaling of text
	o PSTricks (we should be able to support some of this package)
	o better reference support
		- varioref
	o online configuration
		So that users should not need to edit lyxrc
		manually. This has now been "half" done; it is now
	        possible to save the current configuration with the
	        lyx command "preferences-save". We need to add code so
	        that the preferences can be set from inside LyX too.
	o better fontsupport
		T1-lib font renderer.
	o better latex code quality
		This means reading LaTeX books to get an better idea
		on how things are done in the latex world.
	o perhaps find better names for the paragraph styles
	  "paragraph" and "subparagraph"
	o support for filecontents
		This can make a latex document selfcontained, all the
		needed graphics can be in the document.
	o support for optional args to latex commands
		- For sectioning commands I have an idea on how we can
		  do this: have a popup on RMB to set properties.
	o references to external documents
		- xr.sty
	o title page support
	o draft copy
		- draftcopy.sty
	o better float support (allow user to make its own floats)
	o support newtheorem (allow user to make its own thorem like envirs)
	o a bit more wysiwyg where it is appropriate.
		- show bullets the way they will be on paper
		- show a few more characters as they will be on paper
		  (--, ---)
	o online generation of new paragraph styles (or editing or old
	  ones)
	o support for inlined sectioning commands (i.e. \paragraph{} )
	o we should parse the command line ourselves.
	o remove support for XResources, with multiple toolkits it
	  will be impossible to manage. And they are not very needed
	  either.
	o the possibility to collapse parts of the document.
	  (i.e. collapse the contents of a section. Would make moving
	   parts of the document around very easy)
	o better LyXServer support
		- perhaps use UNIX sockets instead of pipes
		- make a decent protocol with return codes.
		- make it independent of the GUI
		- prob: concurrency (locks)
	o other packages to support:
		- listings.sty
		- keyval (we should not use it directly, but know how
			to parse options for it.)
		- here.sty
		- ulem.sty
		- indentfirst.sty
		- lscape.sty

I am sure others have a list as long as mine...


======================

We should also do some work to enhance the support we already have for
some packages, I think these packages are already supported:
	- longtable	- color (papercolor boxes?)
	- setspace (should support setting spacing on individual paragraphs)
	- psnffs packages
	- geometry	- makeidx
	- verbatim	- algorithm
	- inputenc	- fancyhdr (we only have _very_ basic support)
	- fontenc	- graphics

(I am sure I have forgot some, please fill me in.)


======================

If you have other wishes for features, or comments, please let us know.

	Lgb