# $Id: TODO,v 4.4 1996/07/22 20:23:00 kb207252 Exp $

[In a flurry of creative energy!]

Ben Jackson and I think that distrib could use a few more features.
Can you believe these?

1\ let -C take a comma separated list of configuration files

2\ Think about multi-line info like
	&M1 M2 M3 \
		M4 M5

   to implement a kinda stanza file.

   Issues:
	- Lines in an input stanza with `=' in them might indicate a conflict.
	  How would we resolve all the cases?

3\ expand the @file@ notation to allow other processors (viz. igor or cpp
   or zcat/gzcat) to process files.

	like
	define(`PROCESSOR', ifelse(..., ..., `zcat', `gzcat'))dnl
	( @<PROCESSOR>file.Z file1.gz@ ) -> 

   Issues:
	- this requires explicts ``install'' options unless we know about
	  stripping extenders.

	- barriers to other processors (the format for defines doesn't have
	  to be the same).


4\ Distrib could m4 define the name of the config file it is reading
   and the name of the distfile it is reading (or undef it for stdin?).
   This would give the Distfile leverage to include stuff based on the
   machine population -- or not because the file *name* might be through
   a symbolic link or stdin.  Maybe not so useful.

--
Kevin S Braunsdorf, ksb@fedex.com, Mar 1996
