[Plplot-devel] Thoughts from the release guy

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

Whenever we make enough significant changes in PLplot (and the current CVS
HEAD definitely qualifies on that score in my opinion), then I start
thinking about the timing for the next release date.

After reviewing what still needs to be done to stabilize/generalize the
current changes, I think we are looking at a release date in January at the
earliest.  I hasten to add that date is not chiseled in stone, and our group
is small enough so we have always had a flexible and informal release system
(a good thing IMHO). Nevertheless, I hope you keep that tentative date in
mind as a motivator to get your changes and bug fixes into PLplot in the
next few months.

I now give you four lists of the combinations of major, minor, essential,
and "would be nice" issues that I feel should be addressed.  Feel free to
add your favorite issues or your suggestions for changing categories.  Also
feel free to take on the ones I haven't put my name on (in fact take on the
ones I have put my name on as well....;-))

The essential two reasons for bringing these lists of issues to your
attention is (1) to help set priorities and (2) to ask for your help in
solving the issues. In particular, help with the major, essential release
issue of generalizing the Linux library linking scheme would be great, but
if you only have a few hours to spare at a time, working on one of the
several minor issues would be good as well.

Major, essential

(1) The major release issue is to get the library linking in good shape
cross-platform.  So if anybody wants to tackle any of the remaining problems
(rationalizing the libraries some more, static drivers on Linux, static
libraries on Linux, plus generalization of the Linux solution to
cross-platform) that would be great.  Unfortunately, just in the wrong time
frame from the PLplot perspective my research collaborations have gotten
much more intense over the last month or so with other people waiting for me
to finish joint papers so it will be at least November before I can take on
a large project like the remaining library linking stuff.  But I am
determined to finish it eventually if nobody else gets it done first.

Major, "would be nice"

(1) I understand Maurice plans to finish his changes to implement
handling strings as strings in the metafile format.

(2) Geoffrey plans to at least evaluate remaining fidelity problems.

(3) I also hope Geoffrey gets a chance in the next few months (once he gets
a break from his current work pressure) to at least look at plframe and the
python/Tkinter front end.

(4) Parallelogram problem for rotation which is not multiple of 90 deg. This
is on the major list because Maurice doesn't think it will be simple to sort
this out. Once this problem is sorted out, it should be possible to deal
with the remaining rotation problems for the font handling, but I don't
think it will be worth tackling those issues before the parallelogram core
problem is straightened out.

(5) There is still one issue holding back Olof et al from moving to our
supported python interface for their pyqt GUI work. They require two output
devices (one for the GUI and one to store results more permanently).  I just
checked that this was possible with -dev tk.  I haven't looked at the
plframe code that implements this functionality, but I speculate separate
devices are opened for two different streams. I have classified this one as
"Major, would be nice", but in fact a simple solution following what is done
for -dev tk might be possible in which case this should be reclassified as
minor, "would be nice"

Minor, essential.

(1) Some documentation backlog has built up which I would like to deal with
before release.

(2) If x08.tcl (or any other multi-page example) is executed first, then the
first page is skipped.

(3) tk cmap1 palette maniupulations no longer work.

(4) ./xtk02 -f tk02
invalid command name "Pltkwin"
    while executing
"Pltkwin .plw"
    (file "tk02" line 48)
    invoked from within
"source tk02"

and similarly for tk04.

(5) Joao had trouble with cursors in example 1 for SuSe, Maurice does not
with RH 7.3.  I think I may have the problem (blue cross-hairs appear, but
no numbers seem to be typed when you click).  How do you generate the error,
and what are the exact symptoms, again, Joao, and have you found a fix?

(6) Permissions problem with generated plplot-config and plplot-test.sh in
plplot/tmp.  I don't know the proper autoconf method of fixing this.

(7) bindings/tk/plcolor.tcl has execute permissions that should be removed.
examples/tcl/stats.log should be made world-readable.  Both these permission
problems need access to the CVS repository to fix.

Minor, "would be nice"

(1) I plan to try to adjust our python interface from swig-1.3.1[1-3] to
swig-2.0 if that is released before the PLplot release.

(2) I have documented on this list many minor memory leaks found by valgrind
throughout the dynloader area which should be cleaned up.

(3) Finish Java API or else completely reimplement it with swig (which might
be a much faster way of solving the problem).

(4) debian subdirectory made part of HEAD so can build debs directly
from HEAD.

(5) fortran, C++, and octave "x" examples made consistent with the C, tcl,
Java, and python examples as a test that the various front ends produce the
same results.

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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