Known Issues

11th February 2002

Maintainer: Mike Taylor <issues@perl.z3950.org>
Started: 25th September 2001
Last update: 11th February 2002

Tasks

1. The Net::Z3950 module requires the servers to which it connects to support named result sets, which functionality turns out not to be as ubiquitous as I'd thought. The module should be changed so that it can work with such crippled servers.
Status: FIXED thanks to Adam.
2. There is no API for deleting result sets on the server side (and releasing associated resources in the client) except by closing the connection through which they were created.
Status: OUTSTANDING
3. There is a memory leak in programs which repeatedly open and close connections. Why isn't that handled by Perl's garbage collection?
Status: FIXED thanks to Dave.
4. There's no close() method for Net::Z3950::Connections, so clients have no way to throw away connections they've finished with.
Status: FIXED
5. When a fatal condition occurs on a connection (e.g. EOF), its manager should drop its reference to that connection.
Status: OUTSTANDING
6. When a manager has dropped all of its connections, its wait() method should fall out of its loop straight away, returning an undefined value (i.e. an event happened on no connection.)
Status: OUTSTANDING

Appendix: Procedure

Statuses

The status of each task is monitored. The possible statuses are:

OUTSTANDING (we need to fix it.)
UNDER DISCUSSION (perhaps because it has major implications for the architecture, or because I don't understand what point is being made, or because I am awaiting information from the Z39.50 Maintenance Agency or some other third party.)
FIXED or otherwise resolved.

Each task begins in the OUTSTANDING state, and should eventually be progressed to FIXED. The entries for tasks which are UNDER DISCUSSION may include links to separate documents summarising the discussion. The two unresolved states are highlighted in different colours to make it easy to recognise where work is still needed.

Status Changes

The following changes in status are possible:

If a problem described as OUTSTANDING or UNDER DISCUSSION is resolved, email me at <issues@perl.z3950.org> and I will change its status to FIXED.
If you want to kick off discussion of an OUTSTANDING task, email your thoughts to the Net::Z3950 list at <net-z3950@indexdata.dk> to get things going.
If the discussion reaches the point where I decide I ought to refuse a task - or if it's not been discussed it, but I think it's obviously a mistake - I'll change its status accordingly.
Once I've started work on any task, and its status has changed from OUTSTANDING, it should be impossible for it to return to that status. And once any task has been fixed, it should stay that way.
If you feel that any specific task is odd enough that it needs to contravene that rule, email me and we'll discuss it.

Feedback to <mike@indexdata.com> is welcome!