What You Can Do To Help

This document lists some of the tasks that I would need help from.
If you are interested in working on them, please do contact me,
and we will get things coordinated.  As for timeline, the tasks
listed here are usually quite orthogonal to what I am actively
developing, and so interference should be minimal, and I don't
have a strict deadline for them.  So you can do it in whatever
pace you like.  Basically, the earlier you finish it, the
earlier your code will get into the next release. :-)

If you would like to contribute to something that is not listed 
below, do not hesitate to talk to me.  Help is always welcome.

Please also read the file HACKING, which contains information you will
need if you want to contribute.

Thank you for your interest.

Philip Fong
pwlfong@users.sourceforge.net

PS: This file is best viewed in emacs outline mode.

* One-time tasks

  Each of the following tasks is a small, self-contained project.

** Accurate conversions between String and float/double (2002/06/12)

   Need to implement accurate parsing and printing algorithms for
   float and double along the line of the following work:

   Burger and Dybvig, "Printing Floating-Point Numbers Quickly and
   Accurately", SIGPLAN Conference on Programming Language Design
   and Implementation, 1996, pp 108-116.  Available at the following
   URL:

     http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/28233.html

** Implementing java.lang.StrictMath (2002/06/09)

   Need someone good at numerical methods to implement the
   StrictMath class.  Currently, it delegates calls to java.lang.Math.
   The Java API spec says that it should be implemented exactly
   as in fdlibm:

     http://www.netlib.org/fdlibm/

** Optimizing java.lang.String and java.lang.StringBuffer (2002/06/09)

   Implement a more memory efficient version of the two built-in
   classes.  Possible optimization include copy-on-write for
   java.lang.StringBuffer and char[] sharing of substrings in
   java.lang.String.

** Representing boolean arrays as bitmaps (2002/03/12)

   The current implementation represents boolean arrays as arrays
   of unsigned bytes.  A better implementation would be to save
   space by representing boolean arrays as bitmaps.  The changes,
   though small scale, is spread across several source files.
   This is a good way to for starters to get familiar with the
   code base.

** Hacking GNU gengetopt (2002/03/07)

   The Aegis VM parses command line options using the GNU gengetopt
   utility.  Some very important features are missing from its
   current form.  For example, it does not allow multiple
   occurrence of the same option (e.g. "aegisvm -Dx=y -Du=v").
   I would be nice if someone could help me implement those features.
   Gengetopt is written in C, and uses lex/yacc (actually flex/bison)
   to parse specification files.  If you are looking for quick
   results, this is ideal for you.  Although this is no longer
   JVM implementation work, what you do will benefit more than one
   project.

* On-going tasks

  The following are not as self-contained as the above tasks.
  I constantly need help in these areas as I more and more features
  are added into the VM.

** Porting to Other Platforms (2002/10/17)

   It is always nice to see Aegis VM run on platforms other than
   Linux.

** Testing the VM agains Mauve (2002/10/17)

   Mauve is a test suite for Java virtual machines.  It would be
   nice to know how many of Mauve tests does Aegis VM pass.

** Integration with GNU Classpath (2002/06/09)

   We need someone to try using aegisvm to run large Java programs
   in order to find out if it has been integrated properly with
   the GNU Classpath class library.  Those who help out will
   need to characterize the missing pieces in the Aegis VM, and
   probably hack out a solution.  One approach is to pick a
   well established, console-based Java program (e.g. one of
   those XML processing apps), and try to check if Aegis VM
   run it successfully.

** Fixing bugs (2002/03/27)

   Please consult the BUGS file in the distribution for a list of known 
   bugs.  Bug fixing is a great way for beginners to contribute.

** Improving Java Native Interface (JNI) support (2002/03/07)

   There are still quite a number of missing pieces in JNI support.
   I have already implemented some JNI interface functions, and 
   Gildas contributed some hundred of the other.  There is a large
   portion of functionities that are already built into the VM, but 
   the corresponding JNI interface functions are not yet there.  I 
   need someone who can learn both the VM internal and the JNI spec 
   to work on this.  Do not underestimate the complexity of this task
   --- some JNI functions does so much more than data marshalling and
   unmarshalling.  In certain cases, you might even need to add code
   to the VM internal (e.g. global/weak references), but I won't begin
   with those...

** Test suite (2002/03/07)

   Currently, the test suite is not very complete.  As a developer,
   I am definitely biased to think that my code works.  I need shrewed
   testers who are thorough and creative.  If you enjoy breaking other
   people's software and watching a seemingly well-mannered program
   crash, this is just the right job for you :-)  This involves
   Java programming and some lightweight shell programming.  In
   certain cases when JNI is being tested, then some C programming
   might be needed.

** Built-in class library (2002/03/07)

   I am trying not to write my own class library but rather use those 
   already written by others (i.e. the GNU classpath library). 
   However, it turns out that some classes require internal support
   from the VM (e.g. java.lang.Class, java.lang.Object, etc).  I have
   already done some preliminary implementation of a few of such
   classes, but they are far from being standard compliant.  I need
   Java hackers to make these library classes more complete and
   mature.  See the FEATURES file for more information.