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Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:12:21 +0100 |
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Will Robertson wrote:
> I think for now assume that anything that's written with the expl3
> package(s) is to be used in a LaTeX2e environment. I guess I consider it
> a bit like the etoolbox package: it provides package writers with better
> tools to do their job. Worry about LaTeX3 when there's actual talk of
> formats being built that drop LaTeX2e support.
The difference (in the short term) is that etoolbox is "stable". So I
can use that in production packages and not worry about the macros
available altering in the future. Anything I write with expl3 is itself
experimental as a result.
[Of course, I note that etoolbox has had some renames going on.
However, it is "released" and most of the changes were pretty soon after
it came out. So the general point stands.]
> (Err, agreed, everyone?)
>
> This way you can minimise the code you have to write (since whichever
> LaTeX2e package provides it) and it will perhaps become clearer which
> (currently external) packages do need to be pulled into the kernel.
Here is the point, really. I can write what I like using expl3, but I
can't release it as production. So everything has to be done twice,
once in standard TeX/LaTeX and once in expl3 (if I want to do the later
at all). That will change when the current l3 packages reach a point
where I can rely on them not changing, where I can then write new stuff
in l3 + support as needed from LaTeX2e packages, with the aim of
minimising the later.
(By the way, I can't see that any LaTeX3 kernel can possibly support 2e
packages. Surely the entire thing will be structured so differently
that writing the necessary hooks will be too much work.)
--
Joseph Wright
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