[Plplot-devel] Wish list for the release

[Alan W. I. <ir...@be...>]

I haven't been able to spend as much time as I wanted to on Plplot so there
is still a lot for me to do before the release.  Thus, I am backing away
from a release within a few days.  I won't put it off for a long time, but
this should give all of you a chance to do a bit more before the release.

Here is my wish list for the release.  Feel free to modify it, but let's
take as read that none of us really has a lot of time right now so I would
prefer you not waste too many key strokes on that topic....;-) Just do what
you can from this list of possibilities below the line when you can squeeze
it in.  The topics above the line are my responsibility.

(1) Solve the python 2.1 segfault bug for example 9.  Probably release
critical.

(2) Get documentation to build on my new Debian system.  Release critical.

(3) Document what I did recently for the cgm driver configuration.
Hopefully, this will be the start of a new cookbook for the dynamic drivers.

(4) Finish python examples and modify them to be exact replicas of the
C examples as a consistency check on the python front end.

(4a) Do the same for the tcl examples.

(5) gdimage extended example including all the things to make a colour image
work.

(6) Finish Java examples (with commented out API when that is not available).

Everything above this line is my responsibility.  Everything below is someone
else's responsibility, but I am willing to help with testing.
****************************************

(7) Perfect cgm driver (Andrew).

(8) Finish W2000 changes (except for contemplated win driver changes
which will take considerably longer) (Olof).

(9) Get command-line parameter parsing to work for octave x examples.
(Joao).  This is needed so that, for example, the -fam and -fnum parameters
work for the drivers that require familying, but it would also be nice to
see this work for all parameters (like it does for the p octave examples).

(10) Java API (Geoffrey, once I get some more examples ready for him).

(11) Some refinement of the pyqt GUI.  (Allesandro).  In particular I would
like to see the debugging messages disappear, and some paging scheme (have a
look at the ntk GUI or the gnome GUI for examples of this, although probably
something even better could be done). I am sure Allesandro has additional
things in mind as well.

(12) IMO, the most egregious bug for the plplot library shows up for x08c
with the non-smooth edges (missing triangles) to the hidden parts of the
plot for pages 5 through 8 (the 3D shade plot demonstration). If a C expert
here is wondering how they can chip in, it would be *wonderful* to finally
get rid of this bug.

(13) dynamic tk and xwin driver.  (probably Joao).  My impression from
commented out parts of the code that I reviewed for the cgm driver is this
might be ready to go now that we understand exactly what is required in
the gd and cgm cases.  Every dynamic driver requires a link to libplplot and
some require additional links to their own special libraries.  Wouldn't those
special libraries just be the Tk library for the tk driver and the X libraries
for the xwin driver?

(14) Joao also mentioned in his last e-mail that he wanted to play with
plimage a bit more.

I have probably forgotten some things so feel free to add to this list so
long as the project is reasonably short (a few days or less).  I don't view
anything except the first two as release critical, but I did want to write
down these works in progress and other short project possibilities to focus
our efforts before the release.

Alan

email: ir...@be...
phone: 250-727-2902	FAX: 250-721-7715
snail-mail:
Dr. Alan W. Irwin
Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria, P.O. Box 3055,
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, V8W 3P6
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