GSoC-2011-ideas
D1301955553
Afst
#Plan 9 and related technologies cover a huge range of topics. Below
#we've put together a list of some ideas which we think would be good
#candidates for stundents looking for summer-sized projects with us.
#Each idea includes at least a brief description and a list of
#"sponsors" for the idea (people who've suggested it or volunteered
#to work with folks on it). Ideas are rated for estimated difficulty
#from 1 to 3 stars (1=easy) and may contain links to further
#information or discussion.
#
#Note! Every year Plan 9 has participated in GSoC we've accepted
#student-submitted projects not from our list, and that's awesome.
#You are highly encourage to think about how the ideas and
#capabilities of Plan 9 (or its cousins) could be used to solve some
#problem you care about and submit a project for that. We are
#especially fond of things that present their solution in the form of
#a 9p/styx file server.
#
# * Replace html generation in wikifs(4) ✪ (Anthony Sorace)
#
#The wikifs(4) in both Plan 9 and Inferno understand a very small set
#of cues when generating HTML. That set can be limiting. Replace it
#with something better, like Markdown. Markdown engines in C already
#exist, so the Plan 9 part of this shouldn't be too hard. I'd suggest
#doing the Inferno version as well, to make it a good summer sized
#project. Use any remaining time to convert any existing wiki docs
#that need it.
#
# * Make wikifs(4) authenticate against an auth server ✪ (Anthony
# Sorace)
#
#Our wikifs(4) doesn't currently do any authentication. Our web
#server and supporting libraries have support for http
#authentication, but using data stored in the file system directly.
#It would be nice if web applications could authenticate against a
#real Plan 9 authentication server. A student submitting a proposal
#for this should also investigate what's involved in getting wikifs
#working over https (it shouldn't be much) to ensure passwords are
#submitted securely.
#
# * Port BSD NDISulator ✪✪ (Dave Eckhardt)
#
#The NDISulator is a FreeBSD utility which facilitates using device
#drivers for Windows network cards in FreeBSD. Plan 9 faces the same
#problems that led the FreeBSD folks to this, most especially vendors
#who don't release decent information on their parts. Port the
#NDISulator so that we can use drivers written for Windows within
#Plan 9.
#http://people.freebsd.org/~murray/presentations/20050429-msu-freebsd/img36.html http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/config-network-setup.html
#
# * Get kencc to generate Windows object files ✪✪✪ (Steve Simon)
#
#Plan 9's C compiler has generated other types of object files in the
#past; it would be useful if it could generate things Windows
#understands. This is a major undertaking as windows has a variety of
#calling conventions and very different register use. However mingw
#has tools to generate gcc compatible .a libraries which are very
#similar to 8l ones. linking could initially be done with gld as.
#It's noteworthy that the Go toolchain, which is derived from kencc
#(by Ken!), can already do this.
#
# * Native asn.1 DER encode/decode library ✪ (Steve Simon)
#
#Write a native (non-APE) library for encoding and decoding ASN.1 DER
#data. This is a useful step towards future LDAP work. This shouldn't
#be too hard (and there's lots of reference code), but it will
#involve reading lots of RFCs and testing.
#
# * NAT ✪✪ (Erik Quanstrom)
#
#In Plan 9 (and Inferno) networks, you don't need NAT: just import
#the gateway's network. Sadly, we don't live in a Plan 9-only world.
#Write what's needed to allow Plan 9 to act as a NAT gateway for
#other systems. This should be at least mostly (and perhaps entirely)
#doable in user space.
#
# * teach libdraw/libframe to deal with variable height fonts ✪✪✪
# (Erik Quanstrom)
#
#The cannonical example is accented caps, such as u+0000c2, Â.
#
# * x2apic ✪✪ (Erik Quanstrom)
#
#Erik has working xapic code that does cluster, flat and physical
#mode and can handle 1 < n < 255 apics. It's not clear that x2apic is
#worth it, but most of the fun would be in working out that problem
#on 24-core machines driving 10gbe. It's also not a very hard
#problem, since it's mostly a matter of organization.
#
# * msi interrupts ✪✪✪ (Erik Quanstrom)
#
#Similar. Evaluating msi requires doing some careful timing and
#working out how msi relates to the rest of the system. Can you ditch
#apic if you go straight for msi interrupts? Is the performance and
#configuration pain worth it? This is more difficult than x2apic, but
#promises better payoff.
#
#three projects aimed toward a 64-bit kernel that seem right-sized
#for a summer. unfortunately, these may be a bit unsatisfying, as
#they're a small part of a whole.
#
# * work out the assembly for /sys/src/libc/amd64 ✪✪ (Erik Quanstrom)
#
#This work has been done before, but is unavailable. Erik has a
#draft. This project would be in service of longer-term goals for
#amd64 support.
#
# * teach 9load-e820 to jump to the loaded image in 64-bit mode, if
# requested. ✪✪ (Erik Quanstrom)
#
# * A simple draw server for HTML5 browsers. ✪✪ (Skip Tavakkolian)
#
#Adapt an existing Javascript implementation of Styx/9P to use HTML5
#WebSockets -- or implement one from scratch -- and create a 9P file
#server that provides a simple draw device using keyboard, mouse
#event handling and either an SVG or a Canvas element for display.
#Develop a Plan 9 or Inferno client to interact with it.
#
# * Make a keyboard file server ✪ (Erik Quanstrom)
#
#There are several cases where it would be useful to have a
#stand-alone software console. The in-kernel console (rightly)
#doesn't handle interrupts and does only the most basic keyboard
#processing. Other software, like telnet, implements its own console
#handling, as does rio. It would be nice to refactor this into a
#stand-alone file server that handles these functions and could be
#used by all these functions, or directly on the cga console.
#
# * Create an alternative window manager ✪ (John Floren)
#
#For some, rio represents a barrier to entry--complaints that it is
#hard to use or ugly have frequently appeared. It would be nice to
#have an alternative window manager for those people who don't like
#rio, perhaps something with more traditional title bars,
#minimize/maximize/close buttons, etc. Rio could serve as a base for
#this effort if desired, since it already handles the necessary
#multiplexing and drawing operations.
#
# * Make a widget library ✪✪ (John Floren)
#
#Libpanel is old and unmaintained, libcontrol doesn't include e.g. a
#multi-line text entry area, and both look rather outdated. It would
#be nice to have a widget library including buttons, drop-down menus,
#multiple-line text entry, radio buttons, scrollbars, etc. The tk
#library in Inferno does pretty much everything desired.
#
# * Kernel.org for Plan 9 ✪✪✪ (Ron Minnich)
#
#The Linux kernel.org provides a very rich environment for
#prototyping linux enhancements. It also uses a well-known SCM (git)
#which removes one barrier to entry for new users. This project would
#set up a kernel.org-like entity that uses mercurial, supports forks,
#and has a well-defined path for inclusion into the base "kernel.org"
#repo. It would also support a process for regular updates from
#sources. Finally, all contrib packages would be included, but not
#integrated into /sys/src (to make pulls from sources viable);
#rather, they would live in a seperate tree called /contrib (both
#source and binary). Learning the lessons from kernel.org is strongly
#encouraged, but implementing this system in a Plan 9-friendly manner
#is essential.
#
# * Finishing up ratrace ✪✪ (Ron Minnich)
#
#Ratrace (Plan 9 version of strace) needs a few fixes: allowing users
#to get both binary and pretty output from programs; allowing users
#to set the amount of data dumped for read and write; fixing a
#remaining few races when children fork; and allowing ratrace to
#trace itself. This is a pretty straightforward project that would
#allow students to make minimal changes to the kernel and still learn
#a lot.
#
# * KVM/Virtio Drivers ✪✪ (Eric Van Hensbergen)
#
#One of the environments many people run Plan 9 under is Qemu/KVM --
#but the virtio drivers (which are required for high-performance disk
#or network access) aren't currently supported in mainline Plan 9.
#The student(s) would get virtio drivers for first the network and
#then the block device (or perhaps one student for each) working and
#in a form suitable for acceptance in the mainline Plan 9 kernel
#against either the tip Qemu or a recent Qemu/KVM distribution (say
#Ubuntu 10.10). I believe this task is relatively straightforward and
#requires no special hardware outside of a PC capable of running
#Qemu. If there was sufficient time the student could work on other
#virtio drivers (native 9P, console, etc) The student will also be
#responsible for doing a base-level performance evaluation of virtio
#drivers versus emulated drivers for some standard operations (disk
#access, fossil access, venti access, network stream, etc.) The cool
#thing is, it'd be honest kernel work, and have tangible results we
#could all use within a month or so of effort.
#
#Look in /n/sources/contrib/rminnich/lguest for some starting points
#
#It is important that the student have Plan 9 experience for this
#project and know how to compile and run their own kernels.
#
#See also http://bender.eugenics-research.org/doc/plan_9/GSoC/
#
# * Clean up eqn(1) output ✪ (Jeff Sickel)
#
#Eqn has problems generating clean output for brackets and sqrt. This
#is prevalent especially when using ps2pdf. Track down and fix the
#errors so eqn | troff output is clean for publishing pdf papers.
#
# * 9P servers (Jeff Sickel (after reading an email from Charles))
#
#Write a 9P server and supporting clients for relevant systems.
#Suggested areas are:
#
# * Atmel, Arduino
# * dsPIC projects
# * motor control systems
# * Jtag
# * Modbus
#
# * A ProtoFS. ✪ or ✪✪ (Skip Tavakkolian)
#
#Write a 9P file server that can be instructed to create a file tree
#and associate each node with external directories, files or
#processes. Very roughly, the prototype file tree instructions might
#look something like:
#
#! /
#! fst/ = /usr/fst/www/
#! edit/
#! snarf > /dev/snarf
#! paste < /dev/snarf
#! mouse | fd0rw /dev/mouse
#!
#
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