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Subsections

• Priorities
• Targets

Glish

Priorities

Consolidation

The work on Glish is in a stage of consolidation. In general, Glish's capabilities are sufficient both for developers to implement higher-level applications and for users to explore their data. The language is also at about the right level; it is capable enough for complex scripts, while still being approachable by general users. The focus for this cycle will be correcting long-standing defects, particularly in the area of memory leaks and Glish/Tk performance, and in modest new development in Glish.

Targets

Resolve reference cycle problems

This target involves understanding the specifics of how reference count cycles are introduced in Glish, and in devising a general solution to this question which avoids the memory and performance penalties of garbage collection. Reference count cycles are believed to be responsible for many memory leaks currently found in Glish scripts. (DS, H, 4 wk)

Bind first Tix mega-widgets

This target involves the manual binding of the tab and combo-box Tix mega-widgets to Glish/Tk. These are immediately useful in the end-user interface. A longer-term solution will require an automated method of making mega-widgets available via Glish/Tk, but this work is not included in this target. (DS, H, 2 wk).

Understand speed of TCL/Tk and Glish/Tk

There is currently a perceived performance problem in Glish/Tk, which is especially pronounced when drawing large GUIs. The specific origin is unknown. This target involves determining the specific cause by direct comparison with TCL/Tk, including investigating what fraction of the speed differential is caused by byte-compiling. If simple remedies are apparent short of multi-threading, this target includes their implementation. (DS, H, 2 wk)

Defect backlog

A variety of Glish defects remain which are typically long-standing problems which have been neglected due to the work involved in fixing them. They need attention during this development cycle. Included in this list is an investigation of the memory leaks which affect the GBT weather GUI. (DS, H, 4 wk).

Local eval()

The current eval() function in Glish operates only in global scope. This target covers the implementation of a version operating in local scope. (DS, M, 2 wk).