that old upload daemon is at it again:
The following information was provided by the package's contributor.
Name of contribution: xpackages Author's name: The LaTeX3 Project Author's email: latex-team@latex-project.org Location on CTAN: /macros/latex/contrib/xpackages Summary description: The xpackages bundle: 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, hihg-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), the output routine (xor), and so on.
At present, the xpackages are designed to be loaded on top of LaTeX2e:
usepackage{xparse} usepackage{template}
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 1407)
This release is a snap-shot taken from the SVN repository which can be found from:
http://www.latex-project.org/code.html
At present, only some of the xpackages are ready for distribution even in this experimental form. The current xpackages bundle contains:
- xparse, an interface for creating document commands.
- template, a method to generate generic functions using key-value syntax.
- ldcsetup, a temporary utilities package to provide features needed by template which are not currently available in expl3.
In contrast to expl3, which is now broadly stable, the team are actively working on these packages at the present time. They may therefore see significant alterations in the near future (6 months).
Looking forward
The team are currently reviewing the base parts of the xpackages, with the aim of moving on to examine providing a page building and output routine. We hope to establish a semi-regular release pattern of snap-shots, which can then be propagated using the update features of TeX Live and MiKTeX. The exact schedule will depend on the code changes made! Each release will state which SVN revision number it is based on.
Over time, we hope to add more of the xpackages to this distributed version. This will occur as the team decide that a particular xpackage will remain available, and as we reach some stability with those that do.
Other parts of LaTeX3
Several more experimental packages are also available in the SVN. These xpackages show possible design ideas for LaTeX3, and their status is currently very variable.
The expl3 package, which contains the base for programming LaTeX3, is broadly stable and is available on CTAN.
LaTeX3 News
We have established a bi-yearly schedule to publish a LaTeX3 News letter. The second of these will appear at the same time as this release. The news letters can be found at:
http://www.latex-project.org/l3news/
Discussion
Discussion concerning the approach, suggestions for improvements, changes, additions, etc. should be addressed to the list LATEX-L.
You can subscribe to this list by sending mail to
listserv@urz.uni-heidelberg.de
with the body containing
subscribe LATEX-L <Your-First-Name> <Your-Second-Name>
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
thanks for the upload; i've installed the files and updated the catalogue repository. (note that the catalogue entry page, above, will be updated overnight tonight.)
Robin Fairbairns
For the CTAN team