As discussed in the talk given at Vancouver (slides at http://www.latex-project.org/talks/tug99.pdf) we have been developing a new `template' system intended to give a more natural interface to LaTeX class design. I am pleased to announce that the first public test release of this code is now available from the project web site. The package is available as a compressed tar file, or as directory of individual files from the following URL: http://www.latex-project.org/code/experimental/template.tgz http://www.latex-project.org/code/experimental/template/ template.dtx in that directory has a large section of documentation at the front describing the commands in the interface and giving a `worked example' building up some templates for caption formatting. The package builds on the `ldcsetup' code that was posted to this list as part of the xparse distribution. That code is also available from the project web site at these URL: http://www.latex-project.org/code/experimental/xparse.tgz http://www.latex-project.org/code/experimental/xparse/ Please note that these experimental packages should _not_ be placed on public archives, CDRoms or other distributions at the present time. We welcome discussions of this interface on this list. David