David Brownell <david-b@pacbell.net> some early todo items on run_algorithm

[openocd.git] / TODO

// This file is part of the Doyxgen Developer Manual
/** @page tasks Pending and Open Tasks

This page lists pending and open tasks being considered or worked upon
by the OpenOCD community.

@section thelist The List

Most items are open for the taking, but please post to the mailing list
before spending much time working on anything lists here.  The community
may have evolved an idea since it was added here.

Feel free to send patches to add or clarify items on this list, too.

@section thelisttcl TCL

This section provides possible things to improve with OpenOCD's TCL support.

- Fix problem with incorrect line numbers reported for a syntax
  error in a reset init event.

- organize the TCL configurations:
  - provide more directory structure for boards/targets?
  - factor configurations into layers (encapsulation and re-use)

- Isolate all TCL command support: 
  - Pure C CLI implementations using --disable-builtin-tcl. 
    - Allow developers to build new dongles using OpenOCD's JTAG core.
    - At first, provide only low-level JTAG support; target layer and
      above rely heavily on scripting event mechanisms.
  - Allow full TCL support? add --with-tcl=/path/to/installed/tcl
  - Move TCL support out of foo.[ch] and into foo_tcl.[ch] (other ideas?)
    - See src/jtag/core.c and src/jtag/tcl.c for an example.
    - allow some of these TCL command modules to be dynamically loadable?

@section thelistjtag JTAG

This section list issues that need to be resolved in the JTAG layer.

@subsection thelistjtagcore JTAG Core

The following tasks have been suggested for cleaning up the JTAG layer:

- use tap_set_state everywhere to allow logging TAP state transitions
- rename other tap_states to use standard JTAG names (suggested by ML)
- Encapsulate cmd_queue_cur_state and related varaible handling.
- add slick 32 bit versions of jtag_add_xxx_scan() that avoids
buf_set_u32() calls and other evidence of poor impedance match between
API and calling code. New API should cut down # of lines in calling
code by 100's and make things clearer. Also potentially be supported
directly in minidriver API for better embedded host performance.

The following tasks have been suggested for adding new core JTAG support:

- autodetect devices present on the scan chain
  - implement 'discover_taps' command
- SPI/UART emulation:
  - (ab)use bit-banging JTAG interfaces to emulate SPI/UART
  - allow SPI to program flash, MCUs, etc.

@subsection thelistjtaginterfaces JTAG Interfaces

The following tasks have been suggeted for improving OpenOCD's JTAG
interface support:

- rework USB communication to be more robust.  Two possible options are:
  -# use libusb-1.0.1 with libusb-compat-0.1.1 (non-blocking I/O wrapper)
  -# rewrite implementation to use non-blocking I/O
- J-Link driver:
  - fix to work with long scan chains, such as R.Doss's svf test.
- FT2232 (libftdi):
  - make performance comparable to alternatives
  - make usability comparable to alternatives

The following tasks have been suggested for adding new JTAG interfaces:

- TCP driver: allow client/server for remote JTAG interface control.

@section thelistswd Serial Wire Debug

- implement Serial Wire Debug interface 

@section thelistbs Boundary Scan Support

- add STAPL support?
- add BSDL support?

A few possible options for the above:
  -# Fake a TCL equivalent?
  -# Integrate an existing library?
  -# Write a new C implementation a la Jim?

Once the above are completed:
- add support for programming flash using boundary scan techniques
- add integration with a modified gerber view program:
  - provide means to view the PCB and select pins and traces
  - allow use-cases such as the following:
    - @b Stimulus
      -# Double-click on a pin (or trace) with the mouse.
    - @b Effects
      -# The trace starts blinking, and
      -# OpenOCD toggles the pin(s) 0/1.

@section thelisttargets Target Support

- general layer cleanup: @par
  https://lists.berlios.de/pipermail/openocd-development/2009-May/006590.html
- regression: xscale does not place debug_handler.bin into the right spot. workaround:
  use -s option on command line to place xscale/debug_handler.bin in search path @par
  https://lists.berlios.de/pipermail/openocd-development/2009-July/009338.html
- bug: either USBprog is broken with new tms sequence or there is a general
  problem with XScale and the new tms sequence. Workaround: use "tms_sequence long"
  @par
  https://lists.berlios.de/pipermail/openocd-development/2009-July/009426.html
- regression: "reset halt" between 729(works) and 788(fails): @par
https://lists.berlios.de/pipermail/openocd-development/2009-July/009206.html
- ARM923EJS:
  - reset run/halt/step is not robust; needs testing to map out problems.
- ARM11 improvements (MB?)
  - fix single stepping  (reported by ØH). Need to automatically
  use hardware stepping if available.
  - hunt down and add timeouts to all infinite loops, e.g. arm11_run_instr_no_data would
    lock up in infinite loop if e.g. an "mdh" command tries to read memory from invalid memory location.
    Try mdh 0x40000000 on i.MX31 PDK
  - mdb can return garbage data if read byte operation fails for
  a memory region(16 & 32 byte access modes may be supported). Is this
  a bug in the .MX31 PDK init script? Try on i.MX31 PDK: 
  mdw 0xb80005f0 0x8, mdh 0xb80005f0 0x10, mdb 0xb80005f0 0x20. mdb returns
  garabage.
  - implement missing functionality (grep FNC_INFO_NOTIMPLEMENTED ...)
  - thumb support is missing: ISTR ARMv6 requires Thumb.
  ARM1156 has Thumb2; ARM1136 doesn't.
- Cortex A8 support (ML)
  - add target implementation (ML)
- Generic ARM run_algorithm() interface
  - tagged struct wrapping ARM instructions and metadata
  - not revision-specific (current: ARMv4+ARMv5 -or- ARMv6 -or- ARMv7)
  - usable with at least arm_nandwrite() and generic CFI drivers
- MC1322x support (JW/DE?)
  - integrate and test support from JW (and DE?)
  - get working with a known good interface (i.e. not today's jlink)
- AT91SAM92xx:
  - improvements for unknown-board-atmel-at91sam9260.cfg (RD)
- STR9x: (ZW)
  - improvements to str912.cfg to be more general purpose
- AVR: (SQ)
  - independently verify implementation
  - incrementally improve working prototype in trunk. (SQ)
  - work out how to debug this target
  - AVR debugging protocol.
- FPGA:
  - Altera Nios Soft-CPU support
- Coldfire (suggested by NC)
  - can we draw from the BDM project?  @par
    http://bdm.sourceforge.net/

    or the OSBDM package @par
    http://forums.freescale.com/freescale/board/message?board.id=OSBDM08&thread.id=422

@section thelistsvf SVF/XSVF

- develop SVF unit tests 
- develop XSVF unit tests 

@section thelistflash Flash Support

- finish documentation for the following flash drivers:
  - avr
  - ecosflash
  - pic32mx
  - ocl
  - str9xpec

@subsection thelistflashcfi CFI

- finish implementing bus width/chip width handling (suggested by NC)
- factor vendor-specific code into separate source files
  - add new callback interface for vendor-specific code
- investigate/implement "thin wrapper" to use eCos CFI drivers (ØH)

@section thelistdebug Debugger Support

- breakpoints can get lost in some circumstances: @par
  https://lists.berlios.de/pipermail/openocd-development/2009-June/008853.html
- integrate Keil AGDI interface to OpenOCD? (submitted by Dario Vecchio)

@section thelisttesting Testing Suite

This section includes several related groups of ideas:
- @ref thelistunittests
- @ref thelistsmoketests
- @ref thelisttestreports
- @ref thelisttestgenerichw

@subsection thelistunittests Unit Tests

- add testing skeleton to provide frameworks for adding tests
- implement server unit tests
- implement JTAG core unit tests
- implement JTAG interface unit tests
- implement flash unit tests
- implement target unit tests

@subsection thelistsmoketests Smoke Test Tools

-# extend 'make check' with a smoketest app
  - checks for OOCD_TEST_CONFIG, etc. in environment (or config file)
  - if properly set, runs the smoke test with specified parameters
    - openocd -f ${OOCD_TEST_CONFIG}
    - implies a modular test suite (see below)
  - should be able to run some minimal tests with dummy interface:
    - compare results of baseline sanity checks with expected results

-# builds a more complete test suite:
  - existing testing/examples/ look like a great start
  - all targets should be tested fully and for all capabilities
    - we do NOT want a "lowest common denominator" test suite
    - ... but can we start with one to get going?
  - probably requires one test configuration file per board/target
    - modularization can occur here, just like with targets/boards/chips
    - coverage can increase over time, building up bundles of tests

-# add new 'smoketest' Makefile target:
  - calls 'make check' (and the smoketest app)
  - gather inputs and output into a report file

@subsection thelisttestreports Test Feedback Tools

These ideas were first introduced here: @par
  https://lists.berlios.de/pipermail/openocd-development/2009-May/006358.html

- provide report submission scripts for e-mail and web forms
- add new Makefile targets to post the report:
  - 'checkreportsend' -- send to list via e-mail (via sendmail)
  - 'checkreportpost' -- send web form (via curl or other script)

@subsection thelisttestgenerichw Generic Hardware Tester

- implement VHDL to use for FPGA-based JTAG TAP testing device
- develop test suite that utilizes this testing device

@section thelistautotools Autotools Build System

- make entire configure process require less user consideration:
  - automatically detect the features that are available, unless
    options were specifically provided to configure
  - provide a report of the drivers that will be build at the end of
    running configure, so the users can verify which driverswill be
    built during 'make' (and their options) .
- eliminate sources of confusion in @c bootstrap script:
  -# Make @c bootstrap call 'configure --enable-maintainer-mode \<opts\>'?
  -# Add @c buildstrap script to assist with boostrap and configure steps.
- automatically build tool-chains required for cross-compiling
  - produce mingw32, arm-elf, others using in-tree scripts
  - build all required target code from sources
- make JTAG and USB debug output a run-time configuration option

@section thelistarchitecture Architectural Tasks

The following architectural tasks need to be accomplished and should be
fairly easy to complete:

- clean-up code to match style guides
- factor code to eliminate duplicated functionality
- rewrite code that uses casts to access 16-bit and larger types
  from unaligned memory addresses
- libopenocd support: @par
    https://lists.berlios.de/pipermail/openocd-development/2009-May/006405.html
- review and clean up interface/target/flash APIs 

The following strategic tasks will require ambition, knowledge, and time
to complete:

- overhaul use of types to improve 32/64-bit portability
  - types for both host and target word sizes?
  - can we use GDB's CORE_TYPE support?
- Allow N:M:P mapping of servers, targets, and interfaces
- loadable module support for interface/target/flash drivers and commands
  - support both static and dynamic modules.
  - should probably use libltdl for dynamic library handing.

@section thelistadmin Documentation Tasks

- Develop milestone and release guidelines, processes, and scripts.
- Develop "style" guidelines (and scripts) for maintainers:
  - reviewing patches
  - committing to Subversion
- Review The Guide for OpenOCD Users for documentation errors or omissions
- Update The Manual for OpenOCD Developerrs:
  - Add documentation describing the architecture of each module
  - Provide more Technical Primers to bootstrap contributor knowledge

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/** @file
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