2026-03-21 — Features Not Yet Implemented

This is the large HTML companion backlog for ongoing handoffs, planning, and AI collaboration. It is intentionally broader than a milestone sheet.

Canonical filenames going forward: YYYY-MM-DD-features-not-yet-implemented.txt and YYYY-MM-DD-features-not-yet-implemented.html.

Purpose and usage

• This is a deliberately oversized working backlog and note-to-self document for future implementation planning, handoffs, Claude/ChatGPT coordination, regression awareness, and architecture memory.
• It is intentionally broader than a normal milestone list and should include speculative, defensive, UX, architectural, operational, and documentation gaps.
• The canonical filenames going forward are 2026-03-21-features-not-yet-implemented.txt and 2026-03-21-features-not-yet-implemented.html, with later dates replacing the leading date while keeping the same suffix.

Core architecture backlog

• Centralized state store for grid, selected tile, playback focus, overlays, and modal state.
• Formal panel lifecycle model: create, mount, activate, blur, suspend, unmount, destroy.
• Event bus or typed message layer for inter-panel communication.
• Deterministic async render pipeline with cancellation and stale-request protection.
• Config schema validation for window.MyAnythingListConfig and playlist-derived overrides.
• Backward compatibility map for older command syntaxes and legacy playlists.
• Plugin-style panel type registry instead of hardcoded type branching.
• Persistent session restore across reloads for layout and source state.
• Full cleanup discipline for iframes, timers, observers, object URLs, and event listeners.
• Predictable source-of-truth policy for config, query params, playlist commands, and runtime UI edits.

Playlist and command system

• Formal command grammar for #_LoadLinkedImage, #_ReplaceThumbnailWithImage, fit options, future commands, comments, and escaping.
• Robust parser that accepts whitespace variation, quoted and safely unquoted forms where allowed, trailing comments where safe, and future extensibility.
• Validation and diagnostics for malformed commands, unknown directives, orphaned thumbnail commands, and dead URLs.
• Command reference generator extracted from live parser behavior.
• Playlist include/import capability for modular lists.
• Variables, aliases, macros, and reusable named blocks.
• Conditional commands based on output mode, language, orientation, or deployment target.
• Playlist lint mode with line-numbered warnings and suggested fixes.
• Round-trip-safe editor formatting so save/reload preserves intent.

Linked-image and thumbnail system

• Unified custom thumbnail pipeline so all replacement modes share one canonical code path.
• Guaranteed initial-load application of command-driven thumbnails before and after rebuilds.
• Retry and fallback policy for image load failures.
• Explicit local image path support relative to the playlist or HTML file.
• Per-image fit policy standardization with FIT_WIDTH, FIT_HEIGHT, FIT_ALL, contain, and cover mapped consistently.
• Image preloading heuristics for visible tiles and adjacent tiles.
• Broken-image visual placeholder and diagnostics.
• Download/export path that preserves custom thumbnail art exactly as shown.
• Domain-aware image loading diagnostics for headers, redirects, content type, and content disposition issues.

YouTube and media panels

• Centralized inline YouTube player manager.
• Formal focus enter/exit handoff between inline player, tile, and grid.
• Pause/resume behavior when navigation leaves a tile.
• Policy for when to preserve, blur, or destroy embeds.
• Support for additional providers such as Vimeo or direct MP4.
• Audio-only and low-bandwidth modes.
• Media error overlays and retry controls.
• Background preload and thumbnail extraction policy.

Input, focus, and navigation

• Global focus graph for keyboard, remote-control arrows, mouse, touch, and accessibility paths.
• No orphaned interactive surface after DOM mutation or iframe removal.
• Declarative pointer-event ownership for tiles, overlays, and media embeds.
• Improved tab order, focus ring visibility, and aria semantics.
• Long-press, hover-preview, and gesture support.
• Navigation history between panels and between playlist states.
• Configurable remote-control behavior for TV installations.

Local filesystem and source loading

• Best-possible sibling-file loading under file:// with honest failure reporting.
• Optional helper launcher or desktop wrapper for guaranteed local directory access when browser policy blocks it.
• Source labeling that always reveals the true loaded source.
• Cache-busting and freshness controls for remote text playlists.
• Staleness diagnostics when a remote source is unexpectedly cached by browser, CDN, or proxy.
• Optional source hash display for trust and comparison.
• Import-from-directory workflow for local bundles of playlist plus images plus docs.

UI and experience backlog

• Theming system and design tokens.
• Mobile-first responsive polish and tablet-specific modes.
• Improved empty-state guidance on first run.
• Visual diagnostics mode for tile data, source labels, and panel state.
• User-facing logs with filters and severity levels.
• Search, filter, tag, and favorites support.
• Panel grouping, pinning, and saved layouts.
• Animation system with reduced-motion support.

Documentation and handoff backlog

• Canonical HTML version of the features-not-yet-implemented document, not only TXT.
• Canonical TXT and HTML backlog docs should both be maintained in dated form.
• Docs index should link directly to the current backlog TXT and backlog HTML artifacts.
• Change log discipline for every daily build and every docs zip.
• Troubleshooting guide for local file launches, stale remote playlists, and image-command regressions.
• Spec cross-links between runtime behavior and documentation sections.
• Known limitations section explicitly separating browser security limits from app bugs.

Testing and regression backlog

• Regression tests for local-first loading, explicit remote loading, linked-image commands, YouTube focus handoff, and export behavior.
• Sample canonical playlists for image-command coverage.
• Cross-browser smoke tests for Chrome, Edge, Safari, Firefox, Android WebView, and iPad.
• Regression snapshots for first-run local launch behavior.
• Automated checks for stale build labels and filename/version mismatches.
• Fixtures covering Unicode, special characters, and odd punctuation in playlists and filenames.

Operational and deployment backlog

• Explicit distinction between canonical dated build file and deployment alias.
• Packaging standard for daily build folder contents.
• CDN and cache invalidation guidance.
• Build manifest with hashes.
• Environment banner for local/staging/live.
• Operational notes for S3 and CloudFront response headers affecting images and text playlists.

High-priority unresolved items to remember

• Anything that can leave stale pointer ownership or stale focus after embed teardown.
• Anything that can make a remote playlist appear stale due to hidden caching or proxy substitution.
• Anything that makes command-driven thumbnails fail silently.
• Anything that causes the local first-run experience to look broken even when the browser is the blocker.
• Anything that obscures the true source of currently loaded data.