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The following information was provided by the package's contributor.
Name of contribution: xpackages Author's name: LaTeX team Author's email: latex-team@latex-project.org Location on CTAN: /macros/latex/contrib/xpackages Summary description: High-Level LaTeX3 concepts License type: lppl
Announcement text given by the package's contributor:
The xpackages bundle: high-level LaTeX3 concepts
The xpackages are experimental, high-level parts of LaTeX3. They are designed to provide a link between the programming system (expl3) and the user. Each xpackage is focussed in a different area, for example creating document commands (xparse), producing flexible formatting functions (template), etc.
At present, the xpackages are designed to be loaded on top of LaTeX2e:
usepackage{xparse} usepackage{xtemplate}
In time, a LaTeX3 format will be produced based on this code. This allows the code to be used in LaTeX2e packages now while a stand-alone LaTeX3 is developed.
To use the xpackages, you will need to have the expl3 package available. This provides the LaTeX3 coding environment on which the xpackages are built.
This release (SVN 1750)
This release adds the new package xtemplate to the release. xtemplate is a complete re-working of the template code, to improce the interface and internals. Crucially, templates are nmow much better self-documenting: a designer should be able to read a template to see the nature of the keys it defines. The team have also constucted a number of automated tests for the xtemplate code, so that problems will show up before breaking the released version.
The current template package is slowly being retired from use in the other xpackages (currently SVN only). New packages should use the xtemplate approach only: at a suitable stage in the future, template will be removed from the xpackages.
Looking forward
There are some outstanding questions about the xtemplate code, which have been discussed on the LaTeX-L list. These will be addressed, although it may take some time as the answers depend on testing xtemplate in the real world.
The team is currently examining the galley2 and xfmgalley modules, and expect that the next xpackage to be revised to a usable position will be a galley system built on these existing packages.
The LaTeX3 Project
Users may view the package catalogue entry at http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/help/Catalogue/entries/xpackages.html or they may browse the package directory at http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive//macros/latex/contrib/xpackages _______________________________________________ Ctan mailing list Ctan@dante.de https://lists.dante.de/mailman/listinfo/ctan