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+% Copyright 2012 The LaTeX3 Project
+\documentclass{ltnews}
+\PassOptionsToPackage{colorlinks}{hyperref}
+
+\usepackage{metalogo,ragged2e}
+
+\AtBeginDocument{
+ \renewcommand{\LaTeXNews}{\LaTeX3~News}
+ \RaggedRight
+}
+
+\publicationmonth{February}
+\publicationyear{2012}
+\publicationissue{7}
+
+\begin{document}
+\maketitle
+
+\section{After the `Big Bang'}
+
+The last \LaTeX3 News gave details of the `Big Bang', in which the team have
+revised the layout and coverage of the \LaTeX3 codebase. This process has
+made the status of different modules clearer, so that both the team themselves
+and everyone else know what is going on.
+
+The `Big Bang' changes were not shipped to \textsc{ctan} until after the \TeX{}
+Live 2011 freeze, as we did not want to end up with a \textsc{dvd} containing
+badly broken code. The update went to \textsc{ctan} soon after \TeX{} Live 2011
+shipped, and has now propagated around the world. The new package naming
+(\pkg{l3kernel}, \pkg{l3packages} and \pkg{l3experimental}) has caused some
+surprises for a small number of users, but there have not been any major
+issues with the changes at the code level.
+
+The `Big Bang' has attracted attention from programmers outside of the
+\LaTeX3 team, with useful feedback arriving on the
+\texttt{LaTeX-L} list and TeX.sx, in particular. One area that this has
+highlighted is the need to document carefully when changes to the `stable'
+parts of the \LaTeX3 codebase occur. All changes to \pkg{l3kernel} now
+come with an explicit date for the change in the documentation, which means
+that programmers can check exactly when the features they want were introduced.
+
+Another key part of supporting \LaTeX3 use beyond the team is making it easy
+to check on the version of \LaTeX3 installed. To support that, the file date
+of the main \pkg{expl3} package is now set each time there is a release of the
+\LaTeX3 material to \textsc{ctan}. This means that the \LaTeXe{}
+\cs{@ifpackagelater} test can be used reliably to detect if the installed
+version of \LaTeX3 is going to supply the functions that a programmer is
+using.
+
+\section{Deforming boxes}
+
+Additions to both the \LaTeX3 stable material and more experimental modules
+continue. Joseph Wright has been working on adding `native' drivers for
+\LaTeX3 to support box transformations. These allow box rotation, clipping
+and scaling with the drivers \texttt{dvips}, \texttt{xdvipdfmx} and direct
+\textsc{pdf} output.
+
+The development of clipping support for the \texttt{xdvipdfmx} driver has also allowed
+us to suggest improvements to the \LaTeXe{} graphics drivers, enabling clipping
+with the \XeTeX{} engine.
+
+\section{A TeX-based regex engine}
+
+Bruno Le Floch has been %working across the codebase, %% omitted to avoid page break
+improving the efficiency
+and robustness of a number of \LaTeX3 functions. Most notably, he has
+created a purely \TeX{}-based regular expression (regex) system for \LaTeX3.
+This is currently experimental, but is already proving useful and will
+hopefully stabilise over the coming months.
+
+Bruno's regex system works with all of the supported engines (pdf\TeX{},
+\XeTeX{} and \LuaTeX{}). He has implemented the core ideas of standard
+regex systems, along with some \TeX{}-specifics to allow matching and
+replacing
+the content of token lists % correct?
+by category code.
+
+\section{\pkg{xparse} improves}
+
+The \pkg{xparse} module has been overhauled, making the internal code
+more efficient and adding additional argument types. This has also allowed
+us to deal with a number of internal bugs, meaning that argument grabbing
+is now more reliable.
+
+The argument grabbers themselves have been reworked so that in the event of an error,
+the user will normally get a meaningful message from \TeX{} rather than
+one pointing to \pkg{xparse} internal function names. This should help
+in tracking down erroneous input in real documents.
+
+\section{The galley}
+
+As detailed in the last issue, work on the galley module has been continuing.
+Discussion of Joseph's reimplementation of the galley concepts highlighted
+some important areas to work on, with the nature of the template concept
+being particularly significant.
+
+More work is still needed to finalise the galley concepts, but it is clear that
+some of this will require feedback from other areas. Joseph therefore hopes
+to finish work on the current round of galley improvements by the end of
+February, and to return to them once some other areas have been addressed.
+
+\section{Relationships between document items}
+
+The \textsc{tug}2011 meeting took place in October in India. Frank Mittelbach
+spoke there about ideas for describing the design relationship between document elements.
+% omit calling it "ldb" here because that name will likely change (last I heard?)
+These ideas allow a document designer to specify the design of a document element
+based on its context within a document, and progress in this area will likely
+lead to an extension in the \pkg{xtemplate} system.
+
+\end{document}