it's grinding me down:
The following information was provided by the package's contributor.
Name of contribution: xpackages Author's name: LaTeX3 Project 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 (xtemplate), 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 1881)
This release features a new versions of the template package, xtemplate, which revises the idea of a template and brings in the idea of a self-documenting template. The new templates are not compatible with those created using the older template package, which is depreciated. The documentation covers the full detail of the new approach, which we hope makes the template concept easier to follow and more useful for designers.
In the xparse module, the nesting of D arguments has been revised so that is is more robust.
This release also keeps the xpackages up to date with changes in expl3.
The LaTeX3 Project
thanks for the upload; i have installed it and updated the catalogue repository.
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
the perceptive will spot the tiny change in the catalogue entry, overnight.
if they bother to look. it's not very exciting.
Robin Fairbairns
For the CTAN team