The LaTeX Team submitted an update to the
LaTeX Kernel
consisting of the following packages:
latex-base latex-doc cyrillic graphics and tools .
Version: 2015-01-01 License: lppl1.3
Announcement text: ----------------------------------------------------------------------
LaTeX2e Release 2015/01/01 ==========================
This release of the LaTeX kernel and associated core tools features a number of improvements. A short summary is given below: full details of this release are given in the latest edition of LaTeX2e News (Issue 22).
New approach to kernel modifications ------------------------------------
This release features a new method for incorporating changes into the kernel, balancing the need to provide stability with a requirement to fix issues and address changes taking place in the LaTeX landscape. The new `latexrelease` package mechanism means that fixes are now added directly to the kernel, with the possibly for the user to deactivate them
RequirePackage[2014/05/01]{latexrelease}
This mechanism is also available to package authors, who should consult the news for more details.
To facilitate ease-of-use of this new approach, the release date for the kernel has been set to a suitable memorable value.
Extended allocation routine and additional float storage --------------------------------------------------------
The register allocation system has been modified to recognise the existence of e-TeX, XeTeX and LuaTeX and make more registers available _via_ ` ewcount`, _etc._, without the user needing to load the `etex package.
With e-TeX available (the case for all TeX system releases for some years) a new method is made available to extend the pool used for float storage. This can be activated using the new `extrafloats` command, which requires an argument to specify how many additional float slots to provide.
Unicode engine support ----------------------
The engines XeTeX and LuaTeX both natively work with Unicode input and have some (subtle) functionality differences from pdfTeX. This has led to the additional of a range of patches being applied in the process of building the LaTeX2e format with these engines. In this release, the kernel sources are updated such that these patches should no longer be required.
Most notably, the new file `unicode-letters.def` now provides a full set of Unicode-based assignments for `catcode`, `uccode` and so on. This means that with with Unicode engines the assumed font encoding is Unicode rather than `T1`.
TeX system builders have already been appraised of these changes and suggested `.ini` files have been circulated by the team. To aid in the use of this work as widely as possible, `unicode-letters.def` is designed to be usable with formats other than LaTeX2e and act as a drop-in replacement for `unicode-letters.tex` for both XeTeX and LuaTeX.
Building for release --------------------
The team have moved to a new script system for creating releases, [l3build](http://ctan.org/pkg/l3build). For users, the two key benefits of this move are that we now provide hyperlinked PDF documentation and TDS-style zip files for the entire release.
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These packages are located at http://mirror.ctan.org/macros/latex/base/ http://mirror.ctan.org/macros/latex/doc/ http://mirror.ctan.org/macros/latex/required/cyrillic/ http://mirror.ctan.org/macros/latex/required/graphics/ http://mirror.ctan.org/macros/latex/required/tools/
More information is at http://www.ctan.org/pkg/latex-base http://www.ctan.org/pkg/latex-doc http://www.ctan.org/pkg/cyrillic http://www.ctan.org/pkg/graphics http://www.ctan.org/pkg/tools
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Thanks for the upload.
For the CTAN Team Petra Rübe-Pugliese