BSD-Licensed Text-Processing Tools

Synopsis

Create/port BSD-licensed versions of text processing tools that are currently missing from the FreeBSD distribution.

Text processing is one of the most fundamental steps in processing any data. Having quick and efficient text processing tools that can handle a wide range of character sets will be beneficial to all users of FreeBSD.

Ready-to-use sort and diff executables, implementing all features standard in GNU sort and diff, with comparable performance to other implementations. In the course of completing this, a man page for each of the executables will also be created. If time permits, a grep executable will also be completed.

By updating the text processing tools available, FreeBSD will become a more efficient and fully-featured platform for data processing. Most of this project will be completed by analyzing other open source implementations of sort and diff, particularly OpenBSD, and implementing them in FreeBSD. Adding features to both sort and diff will also be a large part of the project. Features standard in other implementations will be added, as well as features that seem appropriate and unimplemented. Implementation of grep would be a great addition to the project, but in order to focus on the quality of sort and diff, perhaps it is better to leave it until after sort and diff have been completed.

I have classes until mid-May, and so most of my work will not begin until late May. I anticipate that the project will take most of the summer, and I hope to finish by mid-August. A more comprehensive schedule will be posted here as soon as it is ready.

ChrisLindsay/BSDTextProcessingTools (last edited 2024-08-28T11:58:41+0000 by MarkLinimon)