[Syllable-kernel] Future directions..

[Jake H. <jh...@po...>]

Here's a quick .plan file from me with my work on the Syllable kernel. 
I'm focused right now on POSIX, UNIX03, and other stds. compliance for 
the maximum compatibility with Linux/GNU and other open-source 
applications, especially in preparation for freezing binary 
compatibility for Syllable 0.6.0.  These would include:

* Vanders' GNU libc port, which is rapidly nearing completion, but is
missing a few critical pieces on the kernel side, e.g. truncate().

* the latest gcc 3.4.x branch, whether Fedora or Gentoo's regular ebuild
updates; the latest ebuild ChangeLog in Gentoo says that gcc-3.4.3
has bugs in the SSE (PIII/PIV/AthlonXP) code generation so we should 
probably use a later code drop (Gentoo is using gcc-3.4.3.20050110).

* I'm working on completing the Syllable-specific pty handling code for 
glibc 2.3.3 -- soon we will have openpty(), grantpt(), unlockpt(), 
ttyname(), ttyname_r(), ptsname(),  and ptsname_r().  Those functions 
aren't used by most UNIX apps, but are critical for programs like xterm 
and ssh sessions (in fact all "terminals" except for the actual hardware 
serial port ttys that they are a simulation of) to work, as well as a 
requirement for porting the GNU testing utility dejagnu, which depends 
on a TCL extension called Expect.  aterm and ssh are rock-solid for me 
so it's pretty obvious that our pty/tty code is working (mostly) 
correctly, but aterm is using a non-portable, old-style BSD way of 
creating ptys that should be upgraded to use the new pty API's. 
Interestingly, the pty code in vfs/pty.c will allow you to create a pty 
of *any* filename in /dev/pty/mst/ along with the matching file in 
/dev/pty/slv/.  Right now aterm creates /dev/pty/mst/pty[0-10000].  I 
propose to use Linux/POSIX style /dev/pty/mst/[0-10000] and 
/dev/pty/slv/[0-10000], i.o.w. the filename would be just the
number.  On the master side, it may be better to switch to a single 
file, e.g. Linux and Solaris use /dev/ptmx for all masters and the slave 
side is /dev/pts/[0-10000].  I'll patch aterm to use the new GNU libc 
functions instead of opening the ptys by hand.  There is about 100 lines 
of configuration stuff that the calls in -lutil, openpty() and forkpty() 
perform that aterm, openssh, etc. should be taking advantage of.

* Timezones.  We are very close to having zic running and installing
compiled versions of all the timezone info in /usr/glibc/... This will
enable us to upgrade DateTime to have actual functioning timezone
support and programs like "date" to show the correct tz abbreviation.
This being a PC system where users are equally likely to dual-boot into
Windows as they are into Linux, DateTime should allow you to set whether
your battery-backed clock is set to GMT or to your local timezone.

Part II coming up...

-Jake