/ 
parrot-0.1.2
/ languages::m4::TODO

Documentation

Prepare slides

Testing

Modify 'output_is' such that GNU m4 is only tested when available.
Add tests for new features
Add test for dumping frozen file

Perl5

Create module Language::m4 or Text::m4
Test with Perl 5.005

Features

The features that need to be implemented are arranged by chapters in the GNU m4 documentation.

Chapter 1 Introduction and preliminaries

read from STDIN, when no file is passed
Add some tests with Autoconf macros
Parsing of short options
recognize unambigous long options
Option -G or --traditional
Option -E or --fatal-warnings
Option -d or --debug
Option -l or --arglength
Option -o or --error-output
Option -I or --include
Option -e or --interactive
Option -s or --synclines
Option -P or --prefix-builtins
Option -W or --word-regexp
Option -H or --hash-size
Option -L or --nesting-limit
Option -Q or --quiet or --silent
Option -B, -S, -T
Option -N or --diversions
Option -D or --define
Option -U or --undefine
Option -t or --trace

Chapter 2 Lexical and syntactic conventions

Nested quoted strings

Chapter 3 How to invoke macros

Option -P or --prefix-builtins
trailing whitespace in macro calls
warnings for inappropriate number of arguments
implement option '--changeword'
recognize unquoted parenthesis in macros

Chapter 4 How to define new macros

implement indirect macro calls
implement 'pushdef' and 'popdef'
implement 'defn'
Do 'input_stack' properly
Special arguments to macros

Chapter 5 Conditionals, loops and recursion

implement 'shift'
implement 'ifelse' used as switch
Write tests with recursion

Chapter 6 How to debug macros and input

implement macro 'dumpdef'
Implement debugging options
implement tracing
implement 'debugfile'

Chapter 7 Input control

everything

Chapter 8 File inclusions

File inclusion
include path
implement 'include'
implement 'sinclude'

Chapter 9 Diverting and undiverting output

Diversions

Chapter 10 Macros for text handling

macro b<translit> add as an op or port from GNU m4
macros b<regexp> and b<patsubst> POSIX regexes

Chapter 11 Macros for doing arithmetic

incr, decr of large numbers
radix support for `eval'

Chapter 12 Running UNIX commands

Why isn't there a 'system' in Parrot?
names for temporary files

Chapter 13 Micellaneous builtin Functions

Macro b<__file__>
Macro b<__line__>

Chapter 14 Fast loading of frozen states

more tests

Chapter 15 Compatability with other versions of m4

Document the differences between Parrot m4 and GNU m4