Am Sun, 1 Jun 2014 21:55:36 +0200 schrieb Frank Mittelbach:


>> Arno wrote about fixltx2e and not fix-cm.
 
> but unfortunately her recycled the old subject line  

and didn't give a complete example

> - ok we should have read more carefully but ... :-)

I had the advantage that I already knew that fixltx2e affects
packages that patch floats so I could ignore all confusing parts of
the question ;-). 



>> Imho fixltx2e should be loaded like fix-cm before documentclass to
>> avoid such problems.
 
> that is absolutely true, fixltx2e fixes the kernel so it should come
> directly after the kernel as soon as possible either via \RequirePackage
> (best) or directly after the document class (second best).

But the documentation doesn't say so. Actually it even warns people
to load another package then fix-cm before \documentclass. 

 
> Nevertheless there is no way to do any fixing without side effects if
> some package hooks into the fixed code (I discussed that one around the
> float placement code in ltnews)
 
> basically packages that hook into those areas would need to  check if
> they run with a  kernel or with a "kernel + patches"

Which can be difficult if the patches are loaded after the kernel -
even more if the kernel patches are delayed to \AtBeginDocument and
the package wants to patch the kernel patches ... 
  

> if a package internally loads fixltx2e (which is a doubtful practice in 
> my opinion) 

Yes I too find it a bit difficult that fontspec loads fixltx2e but
perhaps fontspec needs it. 


-- 
Ulrike Fischer 
http://www.troubleshooting-tex.de/