1 ToDo
******

The following sections describe future development of AUCTeX.  Besides
mid-term goals, bug reports and requests we cannot fix or honor right
away are being gathered here.  If you have some time for Emacs Lisp
hacking, you are encouraged to try to provide a solution to one of the
following problems.  If you don't know Lisp, you may help us to improve
the documentation.  It might be a good idea to discuss proposed changes
on the mailing list of AUCTeX first.

1.1 Mid-term Goals
==================

   * Integration of preview-latex into AUCTeX

     AUCTeX users will thereby get the functionality provided by
     preview-latex without the hassle of an additional installation.

     Looking at the backend, the integration involves folding of error
     parsing and task management of both packages which will ease
     development efforts and avoid redundant work.

   * More flexible option and command handling

     The current state of command handling with `TeX-command-list' is
     not very flexible because there is no distinction between
     executables and command line options to be passed to them.

     Customization of `TeX-command-list' by the user will interfere with
     updates of AUCTeX.

   * Error help catalogs

     Currently, the help for errors is more or less hardwired into
     `tex.el'.  For supporting error help in other languages, it would
     be sensible to instead arrange error messages in language-specific
     files, make a common info file from all such catalogs in a given
     language and look the error texts up in an appropriate index.  The
     user would then specify a preference list of languages, and the
     errors would be looked up in the catalogs in sequence until the
     were identified.

   * Combining `docTeX' with RefTeX

     Macro cross references should also be usable for document
     navigation using RefTeX.


1.2 Wishlist
============

   * Spell checking of macros

     A special ispell dictionary for macros could be nice to have.

   * Quick error overviews

     An error overview window (extract from the log file with just the
     error lines, clickable like a "grep" buffer) and/or fringe
     indicators for errors in the main text would be nice.

   * A math entry grid

     A separate frame with a table of math character graphics to click
     on in order to insert the respective sequence into the buffer (cf.
     the "grid" of x-symbol).

   * Crossreferencing support

     It would be nice if you could index process your favorite
     collection of `.dtx' files (such as the LaTeX source), just call a
     command on arbitrary control sequence, and get either the DVI
     viewer opened right at the definition of that macro (using Source
     Specials), or the source code of the `.dtx' file.

   * Better plain TeX support For starters, `LaTeX-math-mode' is not
     very LaTeX-specific in the first place, and similar holds for
     indentation and formatting.

   * Poor man's Source Specials In particular in PDF mode (and where
     Source Specials cause problems), alternatives would be desirable.
     One could implement inverse search by something like Heiko
     Oberdiek's `vpe.sty', and forward search by using the `.aux' file
     info to correlate labels in the text (possibly in cooperation with
     RefTeX) with previewer pages.

   * Page count when compiling should (optionally) go to modeline of the
     window where the compilation command was invoked, instead of the
     output window.  Suggested by Karsten Tinnefeld
     <tinnefeld@irb.informatik.uni-dortmund.de>.

   * Command to insert a macrodefinition in the preamble, without moving
     point from the current location.  Suggested by "Jeffrey C. Ely"
     <ely@nwu.edu>.

   * A database of all commands defined in all stylefiles.  When a
     command or environment gets entered that is provided in one of the
     styles, insert the appropriate `\usepackage' in the preamble.

   * A way to add and overwrite math mode entries in style files, and to
     decide where they should be.  Suggested by Remo Badii
     <Remo.Badii@psi.ch>.

   * Create template for (first) line of tabular environment.

   * I think prompting for the master is the intended behaviour.  It
     corresponds to a `shared' value for TeX-master.

     There should probably be a `none' value which wouldn't query for
     the master, but instead disable all features that relies on
     TeX-master.

     This default value for TeX-master could then be controled with
     mapping based on the extension.

   * Multiple argument completion for `\bibliography'.  In general, I
     ought to make `,' special for these kind of completions.

   * Suggest `makindex' when appropriate.

   * AUCTeX should be able to parse LaTeX2e `.cls' files.  Here are the
     regexps by `<thiemann@informatik.uni-tuebingen.de>' Peter Thiemann.

               ("\\\\DeclareRobustCommand{?\\\\\\([a-zA-Z]+\\)}?\\[\\([0-9]+\\)\\]\
          \\[\\([^\]\\\\\n\r]+\\)\\]"
                (1 2 3) LaTeX-auto-optional)
               ("\\\\DeclareRobustCommand{?\\\\\\([a-zA-Z]+\\)}?\\[\\([0-9]+\\)\\]"
                (1 2) LaTeX-auto-arguments)
               ("\\\\DeclareRobustCommand{?\\\\\\([a-zA-Z]+\\)}?" 1 TeX-auto-symbol)
               ("\\\\DeclareFixedFont{?\\\\\\([a-zA-Z]+\\)}?"
                1 TeX-auto-symbol)
               ("\\\\Declare\\(Text\\|Old\\)FontCommand{?\\\\\\([a-zA-Z]+\\)}?"
                2 TeX-auto-symbol)
               ("\\\\DeclareMath\\(Symbol\\|Delimiter\\|Accent\\|Radical\\){?\\\\\\([a-zA-Z]+\\)}?"
                2 TeX-auto-symbol)
               ;;; it is also valid to declare just a single symbol, e.g. <,
               ;;; with \DeclareMathSymbol but it is not necessary to register that here
               ("\\\\DeclareText\\(Command\\|Symbol\\|Accent\\|Composite\\){?\\\\\\([a-zA-Z]+\\)}?"
                2 TeX-auto-symbol)

   * Use index files (when available) to speed up `C-c C-m include
     <RET>'.

   * Option not to calculate very slow completions like for `C-c C-m
     include <RET>'.

   * Font menu should be created from `TeX-font-list'.

   * Installation procedure written purely in emacs lisp.

   * Included PostScript files should also be counted as part of the
     document.

   * The parser should catch warnings about undefined crossreferences.
     Suggested by Richard Hirsch `i3080501@ws.rz.tu-bs.de'.

   * A nice hierarchical by-topic organization of all officially
     documented LaTeX macros, available from the menu bar.

   * `TeX-command-default' should be set from the master file, if not
     set locally.  Suggested by Peter Whaite `<peta@cim.mcgill.ca>'.

   * Make AUCTeX work with `crypt++'.  Suggested by Chris Moore
     `<Chris.Moore@src.bae.co.uk>'.

   * The `Spell' command should apply to all files in a document.  Maybe
     it could try to restrict to files that have been modified since
     last spell check?  Suggested by Ravinder Bhumbla
     `<rbhumbla@ucsd.edu>'.

   * Make <.> check for abbreviations and sentences ending with capital
     letters.

   * Use Emacs 19 minibuffer history to choose between previewers, and
     other stuff.  Suggested by John Interrante
     `<interran@uluru.Stanford.EDU>'.

   * Make features.

     A new command `TeX-update' (`C-c C-u') could be used to create an
     up-to-date dvi file by repeatedly running BibTeX, MakeIndex and
     (La)TeX, until an error occurs or we are done.

     An alternative is to have an `Update' command that ensures the
     `dvi' file is up to date.  This could be called before printing and
     previewing.

   * Documentation of variables that can be set in a style hook.

     We need a list of what can safely be done in an ordinary style
     hook.  You can not set a variable that AUCTeX depends on, unless
     AUCTeX knows that it has to run the style hooks first.

     Here is the start of such a list.
    `LaTeX-add-environments'

    `TeX-add-symbols'

    `LaTeX-add-labels'

    `LaTeX-add-bibliographies'

    `LaTeX-largest-level'

   * Completion for counters and sboxes.

   * Outline should be (better) supported in TeX mode.

     At least, support headers, trailers, as well as TeX-outline-extra.

   * `TeX-header-start' and `TeX-trailer-end'.

     We might want these, just for fun (and outlines)

   * Plain TeX and LaTeX specific header and trailer expressions.

     We should have a way to globally specify the default value of the
     header and trailer regexps.

   * Get closer to original `TeX-mode' keybindings.

     A third initialization file (`tex-mode.el') containing an emulator
     of the standard `TeX-mode' would help convince some people to
     change to AUCTeX.

   * Make `TeX-next-error' parse ahead and store the results in a list,
     using markers to remember buffer positions in order to be more
     robust with regard to line numbers and changed files.  This is what
     `next-error' does. (Or did, until Emacs 19).

   * Finish the Texinfo mode.  For one thing, many Texinfo mode
     commands do not accept braces around their arguments.

   * Hook up the letter environment with `bbdb.el'.


1.3 Bugs
========

   * The parsed files and style hooks for `example.dtx', `example.sty',
     `example.drv' and `example.bib' all clash.  Bad.

   * `C-c `' should always stay in the current window, also when it
     finds a new file.

   * Do not overwrite emacs warnings about existing auto-save files when
     loading a new file.

   * Maybe the regexp for matching a TeX symbol during parsing should be
     `"\\\\\\([a-zA-Z]+\\|.\\)"' --
     `<thiemann@informatik.uni-tuebingen.de>' Peter Thiemann.

   * AUCTeX should not parse verbatim environments.

   * Make ``' check for math context in `LaTeX-math-mode'. and simply
     self insert if not in a math context.

   * Make `TeX-insert-dollar' more robust.  Currently it can be fooled
     by `\mbox''es and escaped double dollar for example.

   * Correct indentation for tabular, tabbing, table, math, and array
     environments.

   * Syntax highlighting of LaTeX constructs spanning more than one line
     sometimes stops in the middle of the construct.  Highlighting can
     get lost during typing. (XEmacs only)

   * No syntactic font locking of verbatim macros and environments.
     (XEmacs only)

   * Font locking inside of verbatim macros and environments is not
     inhibited.  This may result in syntax highlighting of unbalanced
     dollar signs and the like spilling out of the verbatim content.
     (XEmacs only)

   * Folding of LaTeX constructs spanning more than one line may result
     in overfull lines. (XEmacs only)

