The Perl Module Junkyard

Most of these entries have some unfinished Perl code that I have written. Let me know if you would like to work with some of my code. I will probably set up a series of pages at tomacorp in the future that includes more finished versions of this code.

Vector Graphics

There needs to be a general vector graphics module that can render to a specific format. This is like DBI/DBD, where there is a general-purpose layer (DBI) and a database specific layer (DBD). In this case, there would be a general-purpose layer for vector graphics and then a variety of specific formats to be rendered, such as

• Tk
• HPGL
• PNG
• GIF
• Postscript
• PDF
• SVG

Some of these formats are raster and some are vector.

HTML to XHTML translation

There is a nice C program by Dave Ragget called tidy. The program has lots of options and features. It would make a great XS or Inline module. No prototype yet, now I just call system() from a perl program. I have heard that an official project to do this has started, but I haven't seen a version released yet.

Perl Spreadsheet

A spreadsheet program written in perl has a data file format which is a perl program. This perl program is also the executable that is the spreadsheet. The program calls modules to do the spreadsheet calculations. I have created an interesting prototype.

Data Mining

There needs to be a general set of tools for easily picking bits of web pages out of the HTML and into a perl-friendly data format. An approach such as HTML->XHTML (via tidy) and the XML::Twig seems reasonable. I have a prototype.

Concordance

fsconcordance is a nice program, and I am looking for a similar program with more features. My concept of a concordance program could form the basis for a web-site indexing program. It have a prototype. The Lingua::Stem is coming in handy!

Parallel Port Control

I would like something to control the lines on the parallel port directly in Perl. No prototype yet.

Robot Simulation

Various robotics competitions offer a wide variety of potential designs, each of which would be expensive or time-consuming to build and test. By testing concepts first with simulation, a more refined design is possible. The code to do this simulation should be extensible and easy to work with. The simulation should be based on the physics of the robots. No prototype yet.

09/16/2001