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diff --git a/Master/texmf-dist/doc/latex/l3kernel/l3news07.tex b/Master/texmf-dist/doc/latex/l3kernel/l3news07.tex new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..9889d5f094f --- /dev/null +++ b/Master/texmf-dist/doc/latex/l3kernel/l3news07.tex @@ -0,0 +1,111 @@ +% 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} |