Programming

• Implementing missing libraries, resources, devices or parts of these. See the detailed status report for more information what bits are missing.

• Implementing or improving hardware device drivers:

  • AROS/m68k-pp:
    • Graphics
    • Input (touchscreen, buttons)
    • Sound
  • AROS/i386-pc:
    • Specific graphic card drivers (we only have general, not very well accelerated ones). A short wishlist:
      • nVidia TNT/TNT2/GeForce (started, but incomplete)
      • S3 Virge
      • Matrox Millenium
    • missing USB classes
    • SCSI
    • Specific IDE chipsets
    • Sound
    • ...anything else you can think of.
  • Generic printer support.

• Porting to other architectures. Some examples of hardware for which no maintained AROS port exists or has been started:

  • Amiga, both m68k and PPC.
  • Atari.
  • HP 300 series.
  • SUN Sparc.
  • iPaq.
  • Macintosh, both m68k and PPC.

• Implementing missing Preferences editors:

  • Overscan
  • Palette
  • Pointer
  • Printer

• Improving the C link library

  This means implementing missing ANSI (and some POSIX) functions in the clib, to make it easier to port UNIX software (eg. GCC, make and binutils). The biggest thing missing is support for POSIX style signaling, but there's some other functions too.

• Implementing more datatypes and improve existing ones

  The number of datatypes available in AROS is quite small. Some examples of datatypes that need improvement to become usable or need implementing from scratch:

  • amigaguide.datatype
  • sound.datatype
    • 8svx.datatype
  • animation.datatype
    • anim.datatype
    • cdxl.datatype

• Porting third-party programs:

  • Text editors like ViM and Emacs.
  • The development tool chain, which includes GCC, make, binutils and other GNU development tools.
  • AmigaOS Open Source software like SimpleMail, YAM, Jabbwerwocky

Documentation

• Writing user documentation. This consists of writing an general User's Guide for novices and experts, and also reference documentation for all standard AROS programs.
• Writing developer documentation. Although this is in a bit better state than user documentation, there is still a lot of work to do. For example, there is really no good tutorial for novice programmers yet. The equivalent of the ROM Kernel Manuals for AROS would be really nice to have.

Translation

• Translating AROS itself to more languages. Currently, only the following languages are more or less completely supported:
  • English
  • Deutsch
  • Svenska
  • Norsk
  • Italiano
  • French
  • Russian
• Translating the documentation and website to more languages. Currently, it is only completely available in English. Parts have been translated to other languages, but there is still much work to do.

Other

• Coordinating GUI design for AROS programs, such as prefs program, tools and utilities.

The Subversion repository

The AROS repository is running with password protected Subversion server, which means that you need to request access to it to be able to collaborate in the development. The passwords are in encrypted form, which you can generate with our online password encryption tool.

Please mail the encrypted password together with your preferred username and your real name to Aaron Digulla and wait for a reply. To facilitate a quick response, please set the subject to "Access to the AROS SVN server" and the body to "Please add <username> <password>", eg.:

Please add digulla xx1LtbDbOY4/E

Use exactly this phrase and don't forget to include your real name! It might take a couple of days as Aaron is quite busy, so please be patient. If you don't get a reply after a week, you're welcome to send a reminder.

For information on how to use the AROS SVN server, please read "Working with SVN". Even if you already know how to use SVN it is useful to look it through, as it contains information and tips specific to the AROS repository (such as how to log into it).