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ROADMAP.md: Copyedits to existing items Include feedback from Discourse to copyedit existing items.
author Arun Giridhar <arungiridhar@gmail.com>
date Wed, 10 Jan 2024 18:37:21 -0500
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1 Octave Roadmap (version 10 onwards)
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2
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3 This roadmap is intended to be a living document, and serves multiple purposes:
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4 * For developers to agree on activities and large-scale features,
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5 * To decide priorities,
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6 * To inform new contributors where they can contribute and feel ownership,
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7 * To allow easier parcelling of smaller activities into GSoC etc,
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8 * To be a transparent basis for any financial decisions to spend project money.
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9
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10 This document is different from a wishlist of features, such as those
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11 present on the Octave wiki, in that this document lists names of people
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12 willing to work on specific activities, whether they are contributors writing code
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13 themselves, or existing Octave maintainers soliciting / reviewing / accepting code
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14 from new contributors.
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15
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16 * For new contributors, this is a way to get your contribution
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17 reviewed and merged into the Octave codebase with more confidence, and a way
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18 to work with a more experienced Octave developer on a named activity so you too
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19 can become an Octave developer over time.
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20
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21 * For existing maintainers, this is a way to get new developers and
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22 contributors in, which helps Octave development scale.
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23
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24 If you want to take ownership of some activity below, or create a new activity,
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25 please edit the list as necessary, add your name, and post about it on Discourse.
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26 If you can, please split up a large activity into smaller pieces that can then
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27 be specifically written by new contributors, GSoC interns, etc. The aim is to
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28 allow anyone to jump in to start contributing to a topic.
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29
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30 This roadmap process starts from Octave 10. As has been the practice for many
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31 years, a major version of Octave is released each year, and no single feature
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32 will be "required" for any given version to be released, but it is good to have
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33 target versions for this list of features so that certain long-pending activities
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34 get more priority.
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35
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36 - Better support for classdef. (LEAD?)
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37 - Matlab-compatible classdef behavior.
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38 - (Needs to be split up into smaller activities.)
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39 - Target: Octave 10.
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40
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41 - HDF5 compatibility with Matlab: (LEAD?)
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42 - Deprecate Octave's native savefile formats in favor of Matlab-compatible HDF5.
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43 - Decide how to handle backwards compatibility with older savefiles.
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44 - Needs h5read/h5write as well as v7.3 MAT-file load/save support.
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45 - Influenced by classdef decision above.
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46 - Note: Examine Nelson's implementation.
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47 - Target: Octave 10.
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48
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49 - String class "foo" as distinct from array of characters 'foo'. (LEAD?)
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50 - See https://octave.discourse.group/t/implementation-of-a-string-class/1089
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51 - Depends on HDF5.
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52 - Note: Examine Nelson's implementation.
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53 - Target: Octave 10.
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54
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55 - Dictionaries (aka associative arrays / hashmaps). (LEAD? GUILLAUME?)
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56 - See https://octave.discourse.group/t/adding-hashmaps-to-octave/3306
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57 - Depends on HDF5 and string.
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58 - Target: Octave 10.
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59
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60 - Release bytecode interpreter. (PETTER, JWE)
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61 - First question: When Octave is released with the bytecode interpreter,
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62 will it *replace* the tree-walker or will it sit alongside it? Once that
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63 question is answered and agreed upon, these activities follow.
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64 - Behavior compatibility with tree-walking interpreter.
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65 - Code clarity and documentation.
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66 - Style check.
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67 - Performance experiments.
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68 - Target: Octave 10
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69
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70 - Graph theory routines (ARUN)
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71 - These need a full overhaul and in some cases ground-up implementation.
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72 - Matlab switched to graph objects some versions ago, as opposed to the
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73 traditional approach (pre-2016) of directly manipulating adjacency matrices
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74 and edge lists.
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75 - Octave needs to implement / import many classical graph functions
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76 (e.g. all-pairs shortest paths, transitive closure, betweenness centrality, etc).
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77 These are not difficult to write, but have mostly been written by end users
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78 for their own work, so the first effort is to converge on a usable function API.
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79 - Possible dependency on HDF5 if graph classes are written as classdefs,
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80 so graph objects will not be saved until then, but the rest of the
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81 development can start and proceed.
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82 - Target: Octave 10-11, potential GSoC project for 2024.
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83
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84 - Argument blocks implementation. (LEAD?)
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85 - Some work has already been done, but needs to be completed.
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86 - Target: Octave 11.
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87
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88 - Assess OpenGL role and improvements. (RIK?)
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89 - May possibly need a paid consultant.
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90 - Target: Octave 11
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91
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92 - Replace GLPK with more performant solver for LP / MILP. (ARUN)
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93 - Candidate: HiGHS.
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94 - More generally, provide a usable API for optimization routines so that
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95 users can drop in their own favorite solver. The idea is that the user
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96 should be able to switch backend solvers with just a simple change
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97 like changing this:
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98 `linprog (... , "solver", "glpk")`
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99 to this:
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100 `linprog (... , "solver", "highs")`
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101 without changing any other user-written code. Can this sort of thing
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102 be done properly so that new solvers are easy to add to Octave by their
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103 respective authors?
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104 - Target: Octave 11