David Kastrup writes:

 > It's not easy to find out just what packages are supposed to be
 > provided for what, and which are superseded (like stuff in xo-new
 > supposedly replacing xo-final).  Hard to say what to fix where if one
 > does not even know what is supposed to be loaded!

???? i find that difficult to believe. granted that the code is perhaps not in
the best possible state is is not as bad as you make it out (imho)

   xoutput -- main driver package

clearly shows the order of packages

   xo-new  -- experimental overwrites

it says at the top:

%
% This package is available for test overwrites that need integration
% into the main packages at some point
%

in addition there is xo-grid.sty which is really an overwrite for some latex
macros to add grid support, so if you like is an application of xoutput.sty

------------------


i'm not putting my hands in the fire that something like xo-final does not
contain any overwrites to the more core parts but it is unlikely.

if you want to know whom to blame, there are revision infos at the bottom of
each file (i hide behind the latex3 account)

 > Any chance for improving pointers on that?  Just so that others might
 > be able to know just what is worth working on and what is really dead
 > beef?

does the above help? basically

 xo-new is experimental^2 and needs checking and then integration everything
 else should be selfcontained

frank